World sport is about to lose one of its legends – with 23-time grand slam singles champion Serena Williams confirming she will retire from tennis in coming weeks.
Williams, 40, has spent more than two decades at the top of world tennis, dominating it for the majority of her career.
But in a press conference on Wednesday (Australian time), she confirmed it would soon all end – and that the countdown ‘‘had begun’’.
The US Open, which begins at Flushing Meadows on August 29, will be Williams’ final pro appearance.
She will play her final game of professional tennis right where she won her first major back in 1999.
But the word ‘‘retirement’’ doesn’t sit well with the superstar.
“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,’’ Williams said.
So, what’s next for the greatest tennis player of an entire generation?
Williams will be anything but bored once she gives up the game, with countless projects, passions and investments on her plate.
‘‘I have to focus on being a mom, my spiritual goals and finally discovering a different, but just exciting Serena,’’ she wrote on Instagram.
Family first
Williams’ primary focus will be expanding her family – after admitting that she never wants to endure another pregnancy as an athlete.
Williams shares daughter Alexis Olympia, 4, with Reddit founder husband Alexis Ohanian.
She was famously eight weeks pregnant when she won the Australian Open in 2017 – her last grand slam victory.
Her daughter’s initials, ‘AO’, are a special nod to the Melbourne tournament.
In an op-ed for September Vogue, Williams said she ‘‘hated’’ having to give up tennis, but she admitted that she ‘‘had to move on’’.
‘‘I know that a lot of people are excited about and look forward to retiring, and I really wish I felt that way,’’ she wrote.
‘‘I’m torn: I don’t want it to be over, but at the same time I’m ready for what’s next.’’
Tweet from @voguemagazine
She revealed that she and Mr Ohanian had been trying for a baby for some time.
‘‘In the past year, Alexis and I have been trying to have another child, and we recently got some information from my doctor that put my mind at ease and made me feel that whenever we’re ready, we can add to our family,’’ she wrote.
But after an emergency caesarean to deliver baby Alexis in 2017 and then a difficult recovery, Williams said she ‘‘definitely’’ didn’t want to go through pregnancy as an athlete again.
Williams suffered a pulmonary embolism after her daughter’s birth, requiring multiple emergency surgeries and months of recovery.
‘‘I need to be two feet into tennis or two feet out,’’ she said.
Building her empire
But Williams’ post-tennis focus will be on more than family.
She may be married to a billionaire, but she is soon due to become a one in her own right – the first female athlete to reach the eye-boggling milestone.
Her success is not only due to her sports earnings and sponsorships, but also to her successful business ventures.
Her venture capital business, Serena Ventures, announced in March it had raised an inaugural fund of $US111 million ($159 million).
It has a vast and diverse portfolio, investing in nearly 60 startups since 2014. They range from online subscription platform MasterClass, to plant-based meat substitute business Impossible Foods.
Tweet from @AndrewPetcash
Williams spoke to multimedia company Black Enterprise about her goals as an investor, expressing her desires to bring diversity to venture capital.
“Less than 2 per cent of all VC money goes to women. I really wanted to bring diversity to VC the way I could,” she said.
“The only way to change those numbers was to be the person who wrote the big cheques.”
Williams is also a minority owner of American football team Miami Dolphins (with sister Venus), and (with her daughter) a part-owner of Los Angeles women’s soccer team Angel City FC.
She even sought to add a prestigious English Premier League club to her portfolio this year, entering a joint bid with F1 driver Lewis Hamilton to purchase Chelsea in April.
The club was eventually bought by American billionaire Todd Boehly.
Passion for fashion
Another key item on Williams’ agenda is fashion.
The superstar has a long-standing interest in clothing design.
She and Venus attended classes at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale in the early 2000s, studying fashion and business.
Two decades later, both have their own clothing lines – S by Serena, and EleVen by Venus Williams.
In a video for Vogue, Williams said her enthusiasm for fashion and design began at a young age.
‘‘My mom used to make all our clothes for us, and that’s why I like fashion so much,’’ she said.
‘‘[S by Serena] is about empowering and challenging individuals to feel bold, strong, sure of themselves and, most of all, confident in who they are.’’
Williams is also likely to be a fixture on red carpets for years to come, having been one of many hosts at the 2019 Met Gala.
She even took to the catwalk in February at Paris Fashion Week, in honour of her late friend Virgil Abloh, a fashion designer and long-time collaborator.
The pair worked together with Nike, the designer once calling Williams his ‘‘muse’’.
Despite her successful debut, Williams said it would be ‘‘the only time you’ll see me on the runway’’.
