Tennis superstar Serena Williams has announced her retirement from the game. She stated that “nothing is a sacrifice for her,” while explaining that she’s choosing her family over the sport.
In a Vogue article written by the 40-year-old tennis superstar, Serena wrote about how much she will miss tennis, but that she’s at a point in her life where she wants to grow her family and doesn’t want to be “pregnant again as an athlete.”
Williams and her husband, Alexis Ohanian, have a daughter, Alexis Olympia, who turns five this month.
In Vogue’s September issue, @serenawilliams prepares to say farewell to tennis on her own terms and in her own words. “It’s the hardest thing that I could ever imagine,” she says. “I don’t want it to be over, but at the same time I’m ready for what’s next” https://t.co/6Zr0UXVTH1 pic.twitter.com/YtGtcc18a9
— Vogue Magazine (@voguemagazine) August 9, 2022
“Believe me, I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family,” Serena said. “I don’t think it’s fair. 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.”
“Maybe I’d be more of a Tom Brady if I had that opportunity,” the tennis star added. “Don’t get me wrong: I love being a woman, and I loved every second of being pregnant with Olympia. I was one of those annoying women who adored being pregnant and was working until the day I had to report to the hospital—although things got super complicated on the other side.”
“And I almost did do the impossible: A lot of people don’t realize that I was two months pregnant when I won the Australian Open in 2017,” Williams continued. “But I’m turning 41 this month, and something’s got to give. I have never liked the word retirement. It doesn’t feel like a modern word to me.”
The athlete explained that she’d rather think of this time as “a transition” and “evolution,” and wrote that she’s “evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me.”
“A few years ago I quietly started Serena Ventures, a venture capital firm. Soon after that, I started a family. I want to grow that family,” Williams shared, while still admitting that idea of retirement brings her a “great deal of pain” and she admits she is not looking forward to it. Serena wrote that she’s “torn: I don’t want it to be over, but at the same time I’m ready for what’s next.”