Serena Williams

NEW YORK :Serena Williams said on Tuesday that she is "evolving away from tennis" and planned to retire from the sport she dominated with 23 Grand Slam ...

I want to grow that family." "Maybe the best word to describe what I'm up to is evolution. "I have never liked the word retirement," Williams wrote in a Vogue article.

The 23-time Grand Slam champion and Olympic gold medallist plans to focus on her family and business interests.

As Serena Williams prepares to step off the court after this year's US Open tournament, tennis' dominant player plans to devote more time to her other ...

She cites Sheryl Sandberg, who stepped down as Facebook’s chief operating officer on Aug 1, as a mentor. Advertisement Advertisement

Serena Williams, one of the most decorated athletes of her generation, is reluctantly planning to retire from professional tennis so she can focus on ...

Williams' 23 Grand Slam singles titles is an Open Era record for women or men. The only tennis athlete with more major singles titles is Australia's Margaret ...

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Serena Williams said on Tuesday (Aug 9) she was “evolving away from tennis” and planned to retire from the sport she dominated with 23 Grand Slam titles ...

Arguably the best female tennis player in history, Serena Williams, is set to finish her career following the next grand slam in the United States. During a press conference on her home turf, the tennis steamroller stated her intent to move away from ...

I need to be two feet into tennis or two feet out,” she confessed to Vogue. “I’ve been reluctant to admit that I have to move on from playing tennis. However, each day new stars are born, such as WTA’s number one Polish Iga Świątek. It is but a matter of time before new bold players get discovered. I definitely don’t want to be pregnant again as an athlete. It comes up, and I start to cry. Maybe the best word to describe what I’m up to is evolution.

To date, Williams has 73 career singles titles, 23 career doubles titles and over $94 million in career winnings.

"I'd like it to be: Serena is this and she's that and she was a great tennis player and she won those slams." "These days, if I have to choose between building my tennis resume and building my family, I choose the latter." To date, Williams has 73 career singles titles, 23 career doubles titles and over $94 million in career winnings, CNBC reports. Ahead of her 41st birthday, Williams realized she had a narrow window to get pregnant again. If I were a guy, I wouldn't be writing this because I'd be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labor of expanding our family." I'm here to tell you that I'm evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me."

Prejudice and hostility followed her throughout a career of scarcely believable achievement, one that told us much about America.

The most unprotected person in America is the Black woman. Malcolm X said in a 1962 speech: “The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman. Like Tiger Woods, she has brought people into the orbit of a sport who never would have bothered to watch a tennis match. Not unlike Muhammad Ali’s sanitised trajectory from enemy of the state and champion of the marginalised to universally celebrated and corporate-approved icon, Williams fought her way on to the stage amid resistance, derision and criticism from all corners. The deluge of plaudits and tributes is already in full flow and will only mount as the season-ending grand slam tournament in Flushing Meadows draws nearer. Venus was 10 and Serena was nine when Richard – with his inimitable blend of Don King ambition and Bundini Brown mysticism – first declared that Venus would be No 1 in the world.

"I'm evolving away from tennis," says the 23-time Grand Slam champion. Read more at straitstimes.com.

“Unfortunately, I wasn’t ready to win Wimbledon this year. She also has a vast business portfolio to maintain. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want that record. I want to grow that family.” “Maybe the best word to describe what I’m up to is evolution. “A few years ago I quietly started Serena Ventures, a venture capital firm.

SERENA WILLIAMS'S decision to retire after playing this year's US Open could provide a much-needed boost to the tournament's broadcaster, ESPN.

Her record of 23 grand slam singles titles in the Open era stands alone but Williams' tennis legacy goes far beyond statistics.

After giving birth at the age of 36, she returned and eventually compiled a run of four grand slam finals in six events late in her 30s. It began with the turbulence of teenage success, a US Open champion at 17 in 1999, then the two and a half years it took for her to win a second. Less credited are Serena Williams’s other defining qualities; her intelligence, her court sense, her ability to problem-solve under suffocating pressure and find a solution on the court. Considering the number of setbacks that Williams has been forced to reckon with because of injury, depression and life‑threatening illness, her longevity is hard to believe. At the 2017 Australian Open while pregnant with her daughter, Alexis Olympia, Williams surpassed Graf to secure the Open-era record of a 23rd grand slam title. Seven years ago, as Serena Williams continued to consolidate her career records and her claims as the greatest of all time, a reporter asked her to identify the all-time record in her sights.

The tennis great's decision is a stark reminder that even in 2022, women's time is still not our own. Serena Williams waving to the crowd at Wimbledon, ...

Williams’s retirement – and the fact that she has been so open about resenting that she must make this choice – are stark reminders that even in 2022, women’s time is often not our own. “I’m going to miss that version of me, that girl who played tennis,” Williams said at the end of her farewell. It is something that many women have dreamt about – the opportunity to be fully invested in our careers while we are at work and fully invested in our families outside of it. It is noticeable in sport because of its public visibility and because it is a physically demanding job. She is making a choice that women all over the world make every day: family or career? Except that in Williams’s mind, it would not be a fairytale.

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 ...

Williams said she and Ohanian want to have a second baby, and wrote: “I definitely don’t want to be pregnant again as an athlete. And I don’t know if I will be ready to win New York," Williams wrote in her essay. “Believe me, I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want that record. She was off the tour for about a year after getting injured during her first-round match at Wimbledon in 2021. They can wear what they want and say what they want and kick butt and be proud of it all.” That unflinching desire to be the best helped make her the best — and also sometimes got her into trouble with chair umpires during matches, most infamously during the 2018 U.S. Open final she lost to Naomi Osaka, a woman more than a decade younger who grew up idolizing Williams, as have so many of today’s players. I’m torn: I don’t want it to be over, but at the same time I’m ready for what’s next.” I mean, that’s the reason why I play tennis,” Coco Gauff, an 18-year-old African-American who was the runner-up at this year’s French Open, said Tuesday. “Tennis being a predominantly white sport, it definitely helped a lot, because I saw somebody who looked like me dominating the game. “Serena Williams is a generational, if not multigenerational, talent who had a profound impact on the game of tennis, but an even greater influence on women in sports, business and society. I hate that I have to be at this crossroads,” she wrote. “There comes a time in life when we have to decide to move in a different direction.

Since winning her first major singles title at the U.S. Open in 1999, Williams has gone on to win 23 Grand Slam titles—a record for any player, male or female, ...

The next day, she would return with Venus to take home the gold for women’s doubles, becoming the first tennis player in history to take home a career Golden Slam in both singles and doubles. Eventually claiming the world number one spot for the third time in 2013 at the age of 31, she became the oldest number one in the history of women’s tennis. After a blood clot in 2011 led to a pulmonary embolism and left her fighting for her life in hospital, Serena returned after a year out with renewed vigor and determination, helped by her thrilling partnership with coach Patrick Mouratoglou, whom she hired in 2012. In one of the most spectacular comebacks of her career, however, Serena returned to the Australian Open in 2007 ranked just 84th and battled her way to the final, where she faced off against rival Maria Sharapova and defeated her in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2. Not only did she play spectacularly at the final in London, dropping only a single game before besting Sharapova, but the Games made Serena the second player in history (after Graf) to achieve the career Golden Slam—winning all four major titles plus the Olympic gold medal—in singles. Three years after Serena took home her first major title at the U.S. Open, she defeated Jennifer Capriati in the semifinals at Roland-Garros to face down her biggest competitor: her own sister. And while Venus was the first to break into the wider public consciousness after reaching the U.S. Open final in 1997 at the age of 17, that year served as an important one for a 16-year-old Serena too. This pivotal moment in Serena’s career was cemented at the Australian Open, where a nail-biting match saw the sisters battle it out across three sets before Serena eventually stormed to victory. Serena’s decision to return to Indian Wells, she noted, came after what she perceived as a change in the culture and more outspoken condemnations of racism within tennis from its governing bodies. While it wasn’t the first time the two sisters had played in a Grand Slam final—that took place at the 2001 U.S. Open, with Venus emerging victorious—it helped Serena step out of her sister’s shadow. Throughout her career, Serena has spoken openly about the culture of racism she and her family were subjected to within the elite and overwhelmingly white tennis world. Defeating Hingis and taking home the trophy was a pivotal moment in Serena’s early career, firmly asserting her new status as a force to be reckoned with.

Williams has strongly hinted at retirement. Here's how to watch what could be the final tournaments of her career.

TBD TBD TBD TBD TBD TBD

The 23-time Grand Slam champion will soon be retiring from professional tennis, calling time on her Hall of Fame career.

But these days, if I have to choose between building my tennis resume and building my family, I choose the latter.” “Unfortunately I wasn’t ready to win Wimbledon this year. I love to entertain. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want that record. I love to win. I didn’t show up the way I should have or could have. I need to be two feet into tennis or two feet out,” insisted the 73-time titlist. Maybe I thought about it too much, and that didn’t help. I love the battle. “I have never liked the word retirement. I hate that I have to be at this crossroads. I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me.”

2008-09: Won the 2008 US Open to break her Grand Slam drought before claiming the Australian Open and Wimbledon titles the following year. Advertisement.

Advertisement Australia's Margaret Court won 24 but the majority came in the amateur era. Seemed poised to secure a calendar Grand Slam at the 2015 US Open but lost to Italy's Roberta Vinci in semi-final. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement

Serena Williams is one of the most celebrated and accomplished athletes of all time. She will play in the U.S. Open later this month and then retire.

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Williams's second-round match on Wednesday at the National Bank Open could be her last in Canada, and everyone wants in on it, even the prime minister and ...

She added that she felt “grateful to have gotten the chance to play her and connect with her in some way. “That’s, I think, the place to do it,” she said. “In Toronto, we had a nice conversation going, and at the U.S. Open she said some very kind things to me in the locker room,” Andreescu said. It was the first time Olympia had sat through a full match, and she low-fived her mother — a go-to move when you’re 4 — after her win. Her opponent, Andreescu, approached the sideline and asked the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion if she could give her a hug. She is plainly having fun in Toronto. Over the weekend before the tournament began, she and her husband, Alexis Ohanian, and their daughter, Olympia, went to Medieval Times, the theater show with crowns and swords. “All of the signs were definitely pointing to a U.S. Open retirement. (Canada was founded in 1867, and the women’s tournament started in 1892.) We’d like to thank you for reading The Times and encourage you to support journalism like this by becoming a subscriber. Doing so will give you access to the work of over 1,700 journalists whose mission is to cover the world and make sure you have accurate and impartial information on the most important topics of the day. Ahead of Serena Williams’s taking the court — which she did with a bowed head and a serious expression — a video with greetings from the retired champion Billie Jean King and some rising stars on the tour, Coco Gauff, Leylah Fernandez and Bianca Andreescu, played for the crowd. “In the players’ lounge, you heard the chatter.

Serena Williams serves in her womenssingles semifinal match against Naomi Osaka. The tension between accident and agency, acceptance and control, is among the ...

(After the Supreme Court’s recent decision, of course, it is less of a choice for many people in this country.) Williams has always seemed to know what she wants; it has always been her great gift, and her gift to us, to pursue it without regard for anything else. It is not fair, but it is life, and it is a choice—or should be—for those who want it. It feels off, and not just because only Serena Williams can be Serena Williams. Much of the essay is about Williams’s “evolution,” as she puts it, from professional tennis player to dedicated mother, and also to venture capitalist. For all the girl-bossing, though, the essay reads most powerfully as an acknowledgment of the things she can’t do, and of the pain that comes with that—even as new opportunities do, too. It is not the only one that Williams acknowledges in the essay. Williams has said that she did not plan to conceive a child just before the 2017 Australian Open—which she would win, defeating her sister, while about eight weeks pregnant—but that the birth of her daughter, later that year, was a great blessing. It’s no secret that Williams’s parents, and particularly her father, had a vision for how to shape Venus and Serena. Even the most talented athletes confront long odds, but the Williams sisters also confronted the tremendous headwinds of racism and misogyny and poverty, and in the cosseted world of tennis, no less. And so can you.” It can be fraught for commentators to address the role of anger in Williams’s play, given the existence of ugly stereotypes about angry Black women. It takes a lot of training to achieve that kind of consistency, no matter the situation, no matter the choice of serve. When I heard that Serena Williams had announced, in an essay for Vogue, her impending retirement, I forgot, for a moment, the long list of her accomplishments. I didn’t think about her records, her unmatched aura of dominance, her transformation from athlete into cultural force—into someone who demanded, by simply being who she was, that people change the way they talk about female athletes, and Black female athletes in particular. But I’ve been thinking about all those tosses that she must have practiced as a kid, lofting the ball over and over to hit the same mark.

Twenty-four is the number of times the Australian tennis player Margaret Court won a Grand Slam singles title before retiring, in 1977. But any comparison falls ...

It looked squarely in the face at the deadening repetition inherent to training, the exhaustion in the travel, the physical loneliness of life on tour. She may not be able to dually serve the gods of tennis and motherhood, but generations of young athletes will continue to pick up racquets of their own because she inspired them to do so. He came back in 1995, retired for the second time in 1999, then came back again in 2001 before finally retiring for good in 2003. Next, an exquisite, bodysuited lunge in 2003, taken shortly after her historic “Serena Slam” (four Grand Slams in a row, but not within a calendar year). And finally there she is, resplendent in red in 2015, the year she won her 19th Grand Slam at the Australian Open, her 20th at the French Open, and her 21st at Wimbledon. Twenty-two came one year later, also at Wimbledon. And then there was the illustrious 23, at the 2017 Australian Open, when she was 35 years old and two months pregnant with her daughter, Olympia. Five years later, it is Olympia who matters most. The reality is that Williams wants another baby; her daughter wants a sibling. He was back in the pool by 2014, then retired “for real” in 2016 after Rio, and five more golds. But any comparison falls comically short: Court won the majority of her slams before the Open Era of tennis (in which pros and amateurs compete against one another) began, in 1968. The woman who has broken every barrier and defied the boundaries of the game has at last collided with the same fate of countless women before her: She simply can’t have it all. There she is with Venus Williams, her sister, in matching striped gowns on a sofa in 1998, one year before Serena won her first Grand Slam, at the U.S. Open, at 17 years old. It was, as The New York Times noted, “one of the most passionately anti-sports books ever written by a superstar athlete.” There were no platitudes on hard work or a champion’s mentality, no dithering over the necessary sacrifices or the payoffs to come. Unless Serena Williams pulls off the kind of feat typically reserved for Hollywood endings at this year’s U.S. Open, 23 is the number of Grand Slam singles titles with which she will retire. These beings, light-years of talent and discipline and stamina beyond us mortals who admire them, are, technically, leaving the day jobs that made them rich and famous.

The greatest female tennis player will call it a career. Here's how athletes from around the globe are responding to Serena Williams' retirement.

We’ve all watched you wear the crown of greatness with the kind of humility, grace, and integrity that all of us can aspire to. “Can't wait to see what the next chapter holds for you... “I think in the year off, she realized she wasn't in it long-term... Andy Roddick, a legend on the men’s tennis tour, told Tennis Channel, "It's weird when... you know it's not going to go on forever but you're still shocked by the news... While some responded right away, most had to take their time to react to the tennis legend’s bombshell announcement.

…but we made our best attempt to choose a few anyway. 1999: Winning her first career Grand Slam at the U.S. Open. Fun fact: The full U.S. Open final between 17- ...

Serena Williams has changed the game of tennis. Williams is just the second women’s player in history after Graf to achieve the feat in singles. Make no mistake, the greatest player to ever play the game of tennis has mixed emotions about retiring from the sport. In a sports world that has often been dominated by men, Serena Williams has broken the mold. She completed her first “Serena Slam” at the 2003 Australian Open, where she beat Venus once again in the final. While she would win doubles in those same Olympics with sister Venus, the singles medal secured her the career singles Golden Slam – all four major titles plus an Olympic gold medal. No player has joined the list since Williams finished her Golden Slam in 2012. (Hingis was the first Swiss player, man or woman, to win a major title and reach No. 1 in the world – a spot she held for 209 weeks). Serena didn’t drop a set all tournament, bringing her total of Grand Slam singles titles to 23. They can play with aggression and pump their fists. They can wear what they want and say what they want and kick butt and be proud of it all.” While the idea that Williams would win majors wasn’t shocking, many didn’t think it would happen so soon.

Williams's career is coming to an end before it would if she were a male player, simply because she must choose between tennis and having more children.

For the men in her line of work, parenthood is usually framed as an opportunity for some kind of spiritual change. Djokovic, 35, won five of his grand slam titles after his son was born in 2014, and three of them after his daughter in 2017. Williams, on the other hand, won the Australian Open in 2017 while she was two months pregnant, which, as she writes, seems “almost impossible”. The biggest impact having four children had on his body is that he needed surgery in 2016 because he twisted his knee while he was running a bath for them. But she can’t because she has to choose between having more children and having a playing career. She’s won more singles titles than any of them, more Olympic medals too, and did it all, as they used to say about Ginger Rogers, “backwards and in high heels”.

Throughout her career, Serena Williams has been untouchable and unattainable. As she picked up a piece of sports equipment — in her hands, a tennis racket ...

She demanded to be heard and seen, expecting the privileges that should have been afforded a person of her standing, until she had to acquiesce and play on. Though some would write it off as Serena having a “ meltdown,” a belittling word, in that moment she was fully herself: the tennis great and the new mom. Though no man in her stratosphere would face this same choice, to define this as the end of Serena’s ambition would be incorrect. She interpreted that as an assault against her character, and Olympia’s mother would have none of that. Even as she made points worthy of a mic drop — being penalized a game for calling the umpire a “thief” when men have hurled far worst insults for lesser punishment — she still could have handled it better. “I have never cheated in my life,” she said, her voice breaking. She would grunt, swear and scream while winning her championships, but during the 2018 U.S. Open final there was a greater purpose behind her intensity. Yet despite the tidy narrative that someone who looks like me should view her as a role model, I have rarely seen myself in Serena Williams. She recognizes the inequity that exists in this question. She possesses more wealth than many of us will see in our lifetime — as does little Olympia. How many 4-year-olds have naptime but also co-own a sports franchise? No other athlete has performed in a body like hers, a work of art as much shaped inside weight rooms as it was celestially blessed by the Creator who appreciates the functionality and beauty of thick thighs and full hips. I personally have celebrated her, cheering through all of her iterations that began as the girl from Compton with beaded braids.

The first stop on Serena Williams's farewell tour came to a quick end as she fell 6-2, 6-4 to Belinda Bencic in the second round of the Canadian Open.

I wish I could’ve played better but Belinda played so well today.” I’ll be coming back just as a visitor to the city but otherwise it’s been remarkable.” “It’s been a pretty interesting 24 hours ... I’m terrible at goodbyes.

For someone who doesn't pride herself on goodbyes, Serena Williams exceeded expectations on Wednesday in Toronto. The American tennis icon proved herself a ...

It could be a different story in Cincinnati or later this summer at the US Open, where she will likely play her final Grand Slam match with an adoring public ready to fill Arthur Ashe stadium with resounding echoes of her sonorous name. I never imagined to play Serena so many times and it’s always an honor to be on the court with her, and that’s why I think tonight is about her, especially here in Toronto.” She seemed to teeter on the precipice of an all-out cry, but didn’t allow herself the luxury of doing so.

No one knows exactly how many more matches Williams will play before walking away, and the 23-time Grand Slam champion exited the National Bank Open on ...

Delivered another later in that opening game, too, showing off the superb serve that helped her to so many victories. But because of a leg injury that sidelined her for the last half of 2021 and first half of 2022, she was playing for only the third time in the past 12 months, and it showed. "Belinda played so well today."

TORONTO (REUTERS) - The first stop on Serena Williams' farewell tour came to a quick end as she fell 6-2, 6-4 to Belinda Bencic in second-round action at ...

toward other things that are important to me." I wish I could've played better but Belinda played so well today." "I love playing here, I've always loved playing here. In the second set, Bencic got the one break she needed to go ahead 4-3 when Williams struck a double fault and the Swiss never looked back as she sealed the match on her serve when Williams sent a return long. After the match, Williams was presented with team jerseys of Toronto's National Basketball Association and National Hockey League teams for her and her daughter, Olympia, who was in attendance, as well as a bouquet of flowers that she carried off the court while wiping back tears. Williams arrived on the court to a standing ovation and had the full support of the capacity crowd throughout the 77-minute match but was unable to conjure up the old magic that helped her lift three titles in Canada.