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.
“I have never liked the word retirement. … I’m here to tell you that I’m 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’t think it’s fair. If I were a guy, I wouldn’t be writing this because I’d 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’ve been reluctant to admit that I have to move on from playing tennis. It’s like a taboo topic. It comes up, and I start to cry. I think the only person I’ve 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.
