NEW YORK –
Saying “the countdown has begun,” 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams announced on Tuesday that she is ready to step away from tennis so she can focus on having another child and her business interests, heralding the end of a career that transcends sports. .
In an essay published Tuesday by Vogue magazine and a post on Instagram (the kind of direct communication with fans that celebrities prefer these days, a category she definitely fits into), Williams wasn’t completely clear on the schedule of her last match, but it could happen at the US Open, which starts on August 29 in New York.
“There comes a time in life when we have to decide to move in a different direction. That time is always difficult when you love something so much. My God, I enjoy tennis. But now, the countdown has begun,” said Williams, who he turns 41 next month, he wrote on Instagram. “I have to focus on being a mother, my spiritual goals and finally discovering a different Serena, but just as exciting. I’m going to enjoy these next few weeks.”
Williams, one of the greatest and most successful athletes in the history of her sport, or any other, wrote in the essay that she doesn’t like the word “retirement” and prefers to think of this stage of her life as “evolving away from tennis.” , towards other things that are important to me.
“I’m in so much pain. It’s the hardest thing I could ever imagine. I hate it. I hate having to be at this crossroads,” she wrote. “I keep telling myself, I wish it could be easy for me, but it’s not. I’m torn: I don’t want it to end, but at the same time I’m ready for what’s next.”
Williams is playing this week in Toronto, in a hard-court tournament leading up to the US Open. That will be the last Grand Slam event of the year and one that he has won six times, most recently in 2014, along with seven titles each at Wimbledon and the Australian Open, plus three at the French Open.
She also owns 14 Grand Slam doubles championships, all won with her older sister Venus, part of a remarkable story of two brothers from Compton, California who grew up to be ranked No. 1, win dozens of trophies and dominate the tennis for stretches, a story told in the Oscar-winning film “King Richard.”
Wimbledon’s official Twitter feed posted this message on Tuesday over a photo of Williams: “Some play the game. Some change it.”
“I don’t really like to think about my legacy. I get asked a lot about it and I never know exactly what to say. But I would like to think that thanks to the opportunities given to me, female athletes feel like they can be themselves on the court.” Williams wrote. “They can play aggression and raise their fists. They can be strong but beautiful. They can wear whatever they want and say whatever they want and kick ass and be proud of everything.”
A victory Monday in Toronto was Williams’ first win in a singles match in more than a year.
The American has won more Grand Slam singles titles in the professional era than any other woman or man. Only one player, Margaret Court, collected more, 24, although the Australian won a share of hers in the amateur era.
“I’d be lying if I said I don’t want that record. Obviously I do. But day to day, I’m not really thinking about her. If I’m in a Grand Slam final, then yes, I am.” thinking about that record,” Williams said. “Maybe I thought about it too much and that didn’t help. The way I see it, he should have had more than 30 Grand Slams.”
But Williams went on to write: “These days, if I have to choose between building my tennis resume and building my family, I choose the latter.”
She and her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, have a daughter, Olympia, who turns 5 on September 1.
“Trust me, I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family. I don’t think it’s fair,” said Williams, who was pregnant when she won the 2017 Australian Open for her last Grand Slam trophy. “If I were a man, I wouldn’t be writing this because I’d be playing and winning while my wife did the physical work of expanding our family.”
Williams said she and Ohanian want to have a second baby, writing, “I definitely don’t want to get pregnant again as an athlete. I need to be two feet tennis or two feet apart.”
She was off tour for about a year after injuring herself during her first-round match at Wimbledon in 2021. She returned to singles competition at the All England Club this June, losing in the first round.
“Unfortunately I wasn’t ready to win Wimbledon this year. And I don’t know if I’ll be ready to win New York,” Williams wrote in her essay. “But I’m going to try.”
After the loss at Wimbledon, Williams was asked if she would compete again.
“That’s a question I can’t answer,” he said at the time. “I don’t know… Who knows? Who knows where I’ll show up?”
Williams hints in the essay that the US Open will be her last tournament, but does not say so explicitly.
“I am not looking for a final ceremonial moment on the court,” Williams wrote. “I’m terrible at goodbyes, the worst thing in the world.”