JUST IN: Serena Williams Announces Retirement From Tennis
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Serena Williams is retiring from professional tennis following the upcoming U.S. Open, she announced today in a piece for Vogue. Williams, who has won a record 23-time Grand Slam singles titles in the Open era, will walk away as one of the most recognizable names in the history of sports.
“I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me,” she wrote. “A few years ago I quietly started Serena Ventures, a venture capital firm. Soon after that, I started a family. I want to grow that family.”
Williams addressed her reluctance to consider moving on from tennis, calling it a “taboo topic” she had only brought up to her therapist.
“It’s like it’s not real until you say it out loud,” Williams said. “It comes up, I get an uncomfortable lump in my throat, and I start to cry.”
In Vogue’s September issue, @serenawilliams prepares to say farewell to tennis on her own terms and in her own words. “It’s the hardest thing that I could ever imagine,” she says. “I don’t want it to be over, but at the same time I’m ready for what’s next” https://t.co/6Zr0UXVTH1 pic.twitter.com/YtGtcc18a9
— Vogue Magazine (@voguemagazine) August 9, 2022
Today’s announcement comes a day after Williams won her first singles match in 430 days, defeating Nuria Párrizas Díaz of Spain 6-4 6-3 at the Canadian Open in Toronto. Williams, 40, had returned to the court in the spring after consulting PGA Tour star Tiger Woods, she wrote, and took the court at Wimbledon earlier this summer, where she lost to France’s Harmony Tan in an intense first-round match.
As for her legacy in the sport, Williams said she doesn’t like to think about it, but she did acknowledge how she hopes the opportunities that were afforded to her open the door for more women athletes to “be themselves on the court.”
“I’m far from perfect, but I’ve also taken a lot of criticism, and I’d like to think that I went through some hard times as a professional tennis player so that the next generation could have it easier,” Williams said. “Over the years, I hope that people come to think of me as symbolizing something bigger than tennis.”
The U.S. Open is scheduled to begin on Monday, Aug. 29 and Serena will be joined by older sister Venus, 42, in the main draw.
