This morning we all learned that Serena Williams has decided to retire after the U.S. Open, which begins later this month.
Serena, the 23-time Grand Slam champion, won her first U.S. Open in 1999 and has dominated the sport ever since.
But now, in a story written for Williams in Vogue Magazine, Williams revealed it’s time to step away from the game.
“I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me,” which includes both growing her business portfolio and her family.
She chose not to use the term “retirement” but rather “evolving”, which is what she has done as an individual and for the sport.
She and her husband, Alexis Ohanian, want to have another child so her daughter, five-year-old Olympia, will have a sibling.
“In the last year, Alexis and I have been trying to have another child, and we recently got some information from my doctor that put my mind at ease and made me feel that whenever we’re ready, we can add to our family. I definitely don’t want to be pregnant again as an athlete. I need to be two feet into tennis or two feet out.”
This time around, Serena wants to off the circuit when having a baby.
During her first pregnancy, which almost killed her, Serena was competing in the Australian Open in 2017 while she was eight weeks pregnant.
But this time around is different.
“A lot of people don’t realize that I was two months pregnant when I won the Australian Open in 2017,” wrote Serena in Vogue. “But I’m turning 41 this month, and something’s got to give.”
So Serena will give it one more shot in Queens, NY later this month and then step away from the game she’s loved since her father put her and her sister, Venus, on the public courts back in Compton, CA.
“I’m ready for what’s next. I don’t know how I’m going to be able to look at this magazine when it comes out, knowing that this is it, the end of a story that started in Compton, California, with a little Black girl who just wanted to play tennis,” wrote Serena. “This sport has given me so much. I love to win. I love the battle. I love to entertain.”
And for decades, she’s done just that.
Let’s all hope Serena can win that last Open and go out on top.
