We knew this day was coming.
We knew Serena Williams couldn’t play tennis forever, although her fans hoped she somehow would because Serena at any age is more entertaining than most athletes could ever dream of being.
But she turns 41 next month, is loving motherhood (and hoping for a second child), has won 23 Grand Slam titles and made nearly $100 million in prize money plus millions more in endorsements, so the end of her career had to be near.
The only question was when.
Now we know. She is thinking of making her exit after the upcoming U.S. Open. Needless to say, the news was not revealed in a traditional release or news conference. Oh, no. Not a chance. This is not just any superstar athlete retirement. This is Serena Williams we’re talking about.
She announced she is “evolving away from tennis” (she doesn’t like the word “retire”) the way only Serena can — on the cover of Vogue magazine, looking glamorous and fit in a light blue Balenciaga gown, beautiful beach backdrop, with 4-year-old daughter Olympia a few feet away, holding up the train of her Mommy’s dress.
“There comes a time in life when we have to decide to move in a different direction,” is how her social media posts began Tuesday morning, directing her followers to her Vogue essay. “That time is always hard when you love something so much. My goodness do I enjoy tennis. But now, the countdown has begun. I have to focus on being a mom, my spiritual goals and finally discovering a different, but just as exciting Serena. I’m gonna relish these next few weeks.”
And we will relish them, too, because there never has been, and probably never will be, a player as dominant as Williams. Surely, there will never be a more compelling story in sports than the Williams sisters from Compton, California, who took over the lily-white sport of tennis three decades ago and remain among its biggest stars.
If you ask the average sports fan to name two of the top female tennis players in the world today, they likely will say Serena and Venus Williams, even though neither is ranked in the top 200 due to long hiatuses.
Venus barged into pro tennis in 1994 as a lanky, powerful 14-year-old with beads in her hair and dropped jaws all over the world. Father Richard Williams predicted Venus’ younger sister, Serena, would be better. He was right.
She won her first U.S. Open in 1999 and 22 years later she can still compete, as she proved with a straight-sets victory over Nuria Parrizas-Diaz on Monday at the National Bank Open in Toronto.
That is remarkable not only because of her age, but because she came back from a pulmonary embolism and later managed to return to near-top form after enduring serious health complications after the birth of her daughter, including another pulmonary embolism and postpartum depression.
Following the birth of Olympia in 2017, she returned to tennis at the 2018 French Open and went on to reach four major finals as a mother, including the U.S. Open in 2018 and 2019.
Most mothers — including this one — struggle mightily to regain their prepregnancy bodies. We learn to accept that the flabby tummy might never go away and should be thought of not as a flaw, but as a badge of motherhood (at least that is what I keep telling myself!).
We also accept that our time is no longer entirely ours, that a huge slice of our daily energy pie will be devoted to our child.
So, the fact that Williams could get back out on the court and reach four major finals as a mom is absolutely extraordinary from a physical and mental standpoint. Balancing work and motherhood is extremely difficult, no matter the profession. When you’re working, you feel like you should be mothering. When you’re mothering, you feel like you should be working.
You are passionate about both roles, want to excel at both and the juggling act isn’t easy. Williams, it seems, is tired of juggling tennis balls with motherhood.
“Believe me, I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family,” she wrote. “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.”
Her husband, Alexis Ohanian, is extremely supportive, but he can’t carry and deliver a baby, so Williams had a decision to make.
“These days, if I have to choose between building my tennis resume and building my family, I choose the latter. I definitely don’t want to be pregnant again as an athlete. I need to be two feet into tennis or two feet out.”
She lamented not breaking Margaret Court’s record of 24 Grand Slam titles, says she wishes she could have done that, but is proud of all she did accomplish.
“There are people who say I’m not the G.O.A.T. because I didn’t pass Margaret Court’s record of 24 Grand Slam titles, which she achieved before the Open Era that began in 1968.”
Those people are wrong.
The Greatest of All Time doesn’t necessarily translate to the player who won the most titles. Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Billie Jean King, Steffi Graf are all legends. As is Margaret Court. But nobody has dominated women’s tennis the way Serena Williams has.
In fact, you could make a strong argument that she is the most dominant athlete in history — male or female. We were lucky to be able to watch her play.
“Unfortunately, I wasn’t ready to win Wimbledon this year and I don’t know if I will be ready to win New York, but I’m going to try,” she wrote. “I’m not looking for some ceremonial final on-court moment. I’m terrible at goodbyes, the world’s worst. But please know that I am more grateful for you than I can ever express in words. You have carried me to so many wins and so many trophies. I’m going to miss that version of me, that girl who played tennis. And I’m going to miss you.”
We will miss you, too.
