23-time Grand Slam winner, Serena Williams, has alluded that she might be reaching the end of her tennis career. Writing for Vogue, Williams said that she has always hated the word “retirement” and instead said she was “evolving away from tennis” and would turn her focus towards other things.
News of her retirement is coming just a day after she earned her first match victory in fourteen months after beating Nuria Parrizas Diaz 6-3 6-4 in the National Bank Open taking place in Toronto and has now made her way to the second round.
Williams, who turns 41 in September, has been frustrated in recent years over her failure to win a Grand Slam title and match the record of Margaret Court, who has 24 Grand Slam titles, the most for any individual, although the record was made before the Open Era. She said that failure to match Margaret’s record is one reason why she is not regarded as the GOAT (greatest of all time).
Speaking about her possible retirement, she said: “I have never liked the word retirement. It doesn’t feel like a modern word to me. I’ve been thinking of this as a transition, but I want to be sensitive about how I use that word, which means something very specific and important to a community of people.
“Maybe the best word to describe what I’m up to is evolution. I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis toward other things that are important to me.
“I’ve been reluctant to admit that I have to move on from playing tennis. It’s like a taboo topic. It comes up, and I start to cry. I think the only person I’ve really gone there with is my therapist.”
On not matching or beating Court’s record of the most Grand Slams, she said: “There are people who say I’m not the GOAT (greatest of all time) because I didn’t pass Court’s record, which she achieved before the ‘Open era’ that began in 1968.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want that record. Obviously, I do. But day to day, I’m really not thinking about her. If I’m in a Slam final, then yes, I’m thinking about that record. Maybe I thought about it too much, and that didn’t help.”
Written by: Leon Osamor
