Serena Williams isn’t calling it a retirement, but in an essay in Vogue, she says she is making a transition to focus on expanding her family and business interests.
鈥淚 have never liked the word retirement. … I鈥檓 here to tell you that I鈥檓 evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me,” she wrote.
“Believe me, I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family. I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 fair. If I were a guy, I wouldn鈥檛 be writing this because I鈥檇 be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labor of expanding our family,” the essay said.
Williams said that at 41, with a 5-year-old daughter who wants to be a big sister: “I鈥檝e been reluctant to admit that I have to move on from playing tennis. It鈥檚 like a taboo topic. It comes up, and I start to cry. I think the only person I鈥檝e really gone there with is my therapist.”
Williams said she will retire after the U.S. Open, which will run from late August into September.
