Serena Williams announced she is retiring from tennis after the 2022 US Open tennis championships later this month.
Her announcement took the tennis world by surprise.
Williams has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles — the most by any player in the Open Era. She is second only to Margaret Court who has 24 singles titles.
But the 40-year-old mom-of-one has been plagued by injuries for most of her career.
In an op-ed piece she wrote for American Vogue magazine, Williams suggested she’s tired of chasing the Grand Slam singles record.
Williams wrote that she was unable to discuss retiring with anyone but her therapist.
“I’ve been reluctant to admit to myself or anyone else that I have to move on from playing tennis,” Williams wrote. “Alexis, my husband, and I have hardly talked about it; it’s like a taboo topic. I can’t even have this conversation with my mom and dad. It’s like it’s not real until you say it out loud. It comes up, I get an uncomfortable lump in my throat, and I start to cry. The only person I’ve really gone there with is my therapist!”
Williams said she isn’t comfortable using the word “retirement,” even though she’s going through with it.
“Maybe the best word to describe what I’m up to is evolution,” Williams wrote in Vogue. “I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me.”
