Serena Williams, one of the biggest names in tennis, with 23 Grand slam titles, the highest in the open era is set to retire. Her rather impressive career spans almost three decades as she began playing when she was a teenager. In that time, she has made more than $350 million in endorsement deals taking her total earnings to $450 million.
Serena shared her plans to retire in an essay she wrote for Vogue. She said she couldn’t talk about it with her husband or her family because of how heavy it weighed on her. Only sharing those thoughts with her therapist at first, Serena was finally ready to talk about the decision to retire after the US 2022 Open.
Serena said in her essay that she never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family. I don’t think it’s fair. She stated that if she was a man, she would not be writing the essay or even announcing a retirement because her wife would be doing the physical labour of growing the family. She added that she loved being a woman, and she loved every moment of being pregnant with her daughter and even worked until the day it was time to give birth.
As natural as childbirth is, it is also one of the most dangerous things a woman can go through. Serena experienced complications following the birth of her daughter, Olympia. While the pregnancy and carrying to term were relatively easy for Serena, the birth was not. Olympia was born through an emergency c-section after her heart rate dropped dramatically during contractions. She had a pulmonary embolism which resulted in an intense cough that popped her stitches. When she went in for surgery for that to be corrected, doctors found a large hematoma in her abdomen.
On what she would like to do next, she noted that she wants to focus on her family and her business.
Serena Williams is a household name. Years ago, she joined the ranks of Michael Jordan, Muhammed Ali, and Michael Phelps as one of the greatest athletes of all time.
She has been ranked singles world No. 1 by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) for 319 weeks, including a joint-record 186 consecutive weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 five times.
She is playing in the U.S. Open, which started Monday, August 29, 2022.
