Serena Williams announces plan to retire and talks about evolving beyond tennis

Owner of 23 Grand Slam titles, American Serena Williams said on Tuesday (9) that she is “evolving beyond tennis”, indicating that she will retire from the sport that dominated for much of her career.

On Monday (8), Williams played his second singles match since returning to the court at Wimbledon in June, after a year out of competition – he beat Spaniard Nuria Parrizas Diaz and advanced to the second round of the Toronto Open.

Williams, 40, won her last Grand Slam title in 2017 and has been battling for a difficult 24th victory, which would bring her to a draw with Australia’s Margaret Court, the tennis player who holds the record for most majors won.

“I never liked the word retirement,” Williams wrote in an article for Vogue magazine. “It doesn’t sound like a modern word to me. I’ve been thinking of it as a transition, but I want to be gentle about the way I use that word, which means something very specific and important to a community of people.”

“Perhaps the best word to describe what I’m planning is evolution. I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving from tennis, towards other things that are important to me,” he said.

Williams said she and her husband, Alexis Ohanian, were planning to have another child. “A few years ago, I quietly created Serena Ventures, a venture capital company. Shortly after that, I started a family. I want that family to grow.”

The tennis player later wrote in an Instagram post about the time to go in a “different direction”.

“It’s always a difficult time when you love something so much,” she added. “And, my God, I like tennis.”

“But now the countdown has started. I have to focus on being a mother, on my spiritual goals and on finally discovering a different but equally exciting Serena. I’m going to savor these next few weeks.”

She won around US$ 100 million (R$ 514 million, in current prices) in prizes.

Translation by Paulo Migliacci