When Serena Williams released her Vogue article in early August, it was a farewell letter to tennis.
She didn't say when she was going to leave the sport, only that she was.
For most 40-year-olds ranked outside the top 600, half a decade removed from their last major title with just one singles win in more than a year, it would barely cause a ripple.
But with Serena it sparked a frenzy; as if it was a shock that she was mortal at all.
The thing is, she's never really had the air of immortality around her the way Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic have.
Serena had public struggles with her health throughout her career and spent long swathes of time on the sidelines before Mother Time caught up with her.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about her career was her unrivalled success in the face of that.
While Federer, Djokovic and Rafael Nadal led the men's tour for two decades, Williams was literally doing the job of three men.
The early years
She won her first major as a 17-year-old at the 1999 US Open, won 10 more through the first decade of the 21st century despite an excellent women's tour including sister Venus, Justine Henin, Maria Sharapova and Kim Clijsters in their pomp, and it was only health and time that stopped her from breaking every record imaginable.
After winning five majors in 2002 and 2003 — including the "Serena Slam" of four straight from the 2002 French Open to 2003 Australian — a series of knee injuries cut her down.
For the next three years, the seemingly unbeatable Williams reached just two grand slam finals, winning only the 2005 title in Melbourne before the injuries saw her tumble out of the top 100 the next year for the first time since 1997.
After rounding back into elite form, at one point winning five out of eight major singles titles from 2008 to 2010, her body betrayed her again when a blood clot in her lung and serious haematoma in her abdomen saw her miss the back half of 2010 and start of 2011.
By the end of 2011, having unravelled as she lost the US Open final to Sam Stosur and reached 30 years of age, it was reasonable to assume Williams's best days were behind her.
Finishing with 13 major titles would be good enough for sixth among women and 13th all time. An amazing career in its own right, but then came the remarkable second act.
The second coming of tennis's queen
2012 yielded Wimbledon, her one and only Olympic singles gold medal and her first US Open title since 2008. The next year she won in Paris and New York again as well as nine other WTA titles to regain her world number one ranking.
In 2014 she went an amazing seven from seven in finals but fell before the quarter-finals at the first three majors of the year, only winning the US Open. Her third straight New York title turned out to be the start of another "Serena Slam", winning the Australian, French and Wimbledon (without playing a single lead-in tournament) to hold all four major titles at once for the second time in her career.
By the time she beat Venus to the 2017 Australian Open title, the 35-year-old had 23 major singles titles to her name, second only to Australian Margaret Court.
Court won more than half of her 24 trophies in the amateur era — which Williams made sure to point out in her Vogue piece — so the American already had a rock-solid claim to sitting at the top of the pile, but the way she was going it didn't seem like that would be a necessary distinction.
But she was by some distance the oldest woman to ever win a major.
Then came the news that she had won that title at Melbourne Park while two months' pregnant. We marvelled at her strength and celebrated her news, but the birth later that year was not simple.
Motherhood comes with fresh challenges
Alexis Olympia was delivered by emergency Caesarean section, after which Williams went under the knife to treat another pulmonary embolism. That issue with her lungs also caused violent coughing, tearing her C-section scar, with Williams saying she "almost died".
The multiple surgeries meant she spent six weeks in bed after the birth in September.
These are just some of the challenges and hard choices of being an elite sportswoman she flagged in Vogue.
She made a staggered return to tennis — playing an exhibition three months later, missing the 2018 Australian Open, dabbling in some doubles with sister Venus, before a fully-fledged return to singles at Indian Wells.
A couple of early exits in California and Miami led into her grand slam comeback at the French Open, where she reached the fourth round but withdrew from the match against Maria Sharapova with a pectoral injury.
She marked her real return to the top flight with a run to the Wimbledon final, missing her first shot at title number 24 with a loss to Angelique Kerber. But that was nothing compared to her second missed opportunity, at the 2018 US Open.
Chances slip away
Heading into New York as the 17th seed, Williams made it to the final against young Japanese-American star Naomi Osaka.
Osaka's family had moved to the US and pursued a career in tennis for their daughter because of the Williams sisters, and here she was, just 20 years of age playing her idol in her first grand slam final.
Either Williams would win number 24 and officially take her place at the top of the pile, or it would be a crowning glory for the next bright star on the WTA tour. Win-win, right? Surely there was no weird third thing.
Well, as it was in the 2009 semi and 2011 final, Williams went into an apoplectic rage over perceived mistreatment by officials at the worst possible time.
A spectacular and lengthy tirade following a point penalty for coaching and smashing a racquet led to a game penalty for verbal abuse. A shellshocked Osaka served out the match two games later for a straight-sets win, but no-one was celebrated after the ugly scenes, with Osaka hiding behind her visor as tears rolled down her face at the trophy presentation.
Williams reached two more major finals in 2019, losing to Simona Halep at Wimbledon and Bianca Andreescu at the US Open, and time eventually ran out on her to claim the 24th title that once appeared a certainty.
More than just an athlete
The good news for Serena is her life and legacy is so much more than one thing.
Like calling Jennifer Lopez just a singer or Bugs Bunny just a basketball player, reducing Williams to her tennis career does her a disservice.
Even the way she confirmed the countdown was on to the end of her tennis career was unique. Written in Anna Wintour's magazine and filled not at all with the usual platitudes about calling time and it just feeling right.
"I have never liked the word retirement. It doesn't feel like a modern word to me," she wrote.
"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."
She has fashion lines, a venture capital company and frankly too many other business interests to name.
She's a mother and a voice for civil rights.
She's shared the stage with Beyonce, went to Harry and Meghan's wedding and been executive producer for an Oscar-winning biopic about her own father.
If you think this is the end of Serena Williams's career, you're wrong; it's just the start of a new one. Or two, or three.
Impact on tennis goes beyond her time on court
That's not to say her tennis wasn't also important; far more so than most people hitting balls back and forth.
Early on in their careers, Serena and Venus Williams were mercilessly booed and jeered by the crowd at Indian Wells in California.
One of tennis's showpiece tournaments outside the majors, the justification for the crowd's behaviour at the 2001 edition was their displeasure at Venus allowing her sister a walkover into the final against Clijsters.
But, like the claim that Adam Goodes became the most accosted player in the AFL because he staged for free-kicks, the real reason was obvious.
The Williams sisters had infiltrated the traditionally white halls of tennis excellence.
Looking through the great champions of the sport, Arthur Ashe, Althea Gibson and Yannick Noah were some of the only black major champions before the Williams era began.
While old fogies could squint and view LGBTQIA+ icons Renée Richards, Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova as the straight white champions they wanted, the sisters from South Central LA were black, young, powerful, proud and loud, rocking beads in their hair and blowing opponents off the court.
Serena's prolonged brilliance in the sport meant she was the most prominent woman in tennis. And perhaps the most prominent black athlete in the world, alongside LeBron James and Tiger Woods.
That prominence meant she was called on time and time again to be a voice for women and black people, and she answered the call, not shying away from the conversation even if it made some people uncomfortable.
It's not a coincidence that a bit over 20 years after their arrival, Naomi Osaka, Coco Gauff, Sloane Stephens, Nick Kyrgios, Francis Tiafoe, Felix Auger-Aliassime and a bunch of other black and brown 20-something athletes are shining in the sport, most of them readily speaking about social issues and racial injustice.
We know the Osaka story, and Gauff said in no uncertain terms that Serena is "the reason why I play tennis".
"Tennis being a predominantly white sport, it definitely helped a lot," she said after Williams confirmed her impending retirement.
"Because I saw somebody who looked like me dominating the game. It made me believe that I could dominate too."
With the baton passed to Gauff and Osaka, they are surely playing a similar role for countless kids around the world, but it can all be traced back to Serena's brilliance over more than 20 years on tour.
It's entirely possible that her next endeavour will bring with it more success, adulation and accolades, but it's hard to imagine anyone making more of an impact in any field than she did in the tennis world.
And that's where the GOAT argument is strongest for her. No-one is suggesting she's faster than Usain Bolt, stronger than Valerie Adams or can jump higher than LeBron James, but … well let's just give Osaka the last word.
"Serena is unequivocally the best athlete ever. Forget female athlete, I mean athlete," she told Time.
"No-one else has changed her sport as much as she did and against all odds."
