Serena Williams announces she will retire from tennis after glittering career

Serena Williams, one of the greatest athletes of all time and a 23-time grand slam singles champion, has announced that she is retiring from professional tennis, indicating she could step away after the upcoming US Open.

Williams has spent much of the past few years off the court preparing for the moment she decided to move on, including by setting up a venture capitalist company, Serena Ventures, and investing in various organisations. However, she explained that one of her biggest reasons for retirement is her intention to further expand her family. Williams gave birth to her first child, Alexis Olympia, in 2017.

Over the course of a historic career that has spanned nearly three decades since its beginnings on the public courts of Compton, California, Williams has won an Open era record of 23 grand slam singles titles, earning a total of $94,588,910 in prize money and much more in endorsements. Williams fell short of the all-time record of 24, a record of less importance, set by Margaret Court.

Despite the various outside interests that Williams has enjoyed since her youth, Williams has also consolidated one of the lengthiest careers of all time at the top level of the sport, behind only her 42-year-old sister, Venus. She has embarked on innumerable comebacks, including twice after suffering from life-threatening pulmonary embolisms.

Williams turned professional aged 14 in 1995 and was a teenage phenom, winning her first grand slam title aged 17 at the 1999 US Open. Despite the mileage in her legs now, Williams contrasted her feelings with the seemingly happy retirements of the 26-year-old Ashleigh Barty in March and the 32-year-old Caroline Wozniacki, her close friend, in 2020.

This week Williams is competing at the National Bank Open in Toronto, where on Monday she defeated Nuria Parrizas-Diaz 6-3, 6-4 to win her first singles match since June 2021. After Canada, she is scheduled to compete at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, Ohio, followed by the US Open which begins at the end of August.