Serena Williams says goodbye to tennis

Tennis star Serena Williams announced that the “countdown” to her retirement has begun “Tuesday” on Instagram and in an interview with Vogue magazine.

“There comes a time in life when you have to make a new decision. It’s always a tough moment when you love what you do so much. God I love tennis. But now the countdown has begun,” the 40-year-old American, who holds 23 Grand Slam titles, explained, She said she wanted to “focus on her role as a mother, and her spiritual goals of discovering the new Serena, but just as exciting.”

“I’ll be savoring the next few weeks,” the youngest of the Williams sisters added, without specifying the exact date of her retirement.

Serena Williams on Monday claimed her first win in more than a year at the WTA 1000 in Toronto, less than three weeks before the start of the US Open where she was on the entry list.

The American, who will celebrate her 41st birthday on September 26, bravely beat Spain’s Nuria Barezas Diaz (No. 57) in two sets (6-3, 6-4) at the end of the match. The first success in 2022. His last individual victory on the ring dates back to June 4, 2021 and his appearance in the third round at Roland Garros, a few weeks before withdrawing at the start of the first round of Wimbledon due to one of his legs. infection.

She was then absent for about a year, which made her return to the singles at the end of June at Wimbledon 2022… where she was beaten from the start by French Harmony Tan.

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Serena Williams, a seven-time Grand Slam title on grass and the previous undisputed world No. 1, slipped to 407th in the world.

Her last Grand Slam title goes back more than 5 years, at the 2017 Australian Open. Since then she has been running unsuccessfully behind the 24th title that would allow her to equal Margaret Court’s record.