Source: Luis Alberto Rodriguez / Vogue
will go down in sports history as one of the greatest tennis players to ever grace the courts, and it appears that her time in the game is coming to an end. Via a recent op-ed piece, the legendary athlete shared that she’ll soon retire from tennis in order to pursue other goals.
Serena Williams penned an op-ed piece for
Vogue laying out her plans to step away from the game while also contemplating growing her family with her husband, Alexis Ohanian. While Williams, 40, is reluctant to use the word retirement, it’s clear she is looking beyond to other ventures and doing so on her terms.
Source: Vaughn Ridley / GettyFrom
Vogue:
But I’ve been reluctant to admit to myself or anyone else that I have to move on from playing tennis. Alexis, my husband, and I have hardly talked about it; it’s like a taboo topic. I can’t even have this conversation with my mom and dad. It’s like it’s not real until you say it out loud. It comes up, I get an uncomfortable lump in my throat, and I start to cry. The only person I’ve really gone there with is my therapist! One thing I’m not going to do is sugarcoat this. I know that a lot of people are excited about and look forward to retiring, and I really wish I felt that way.
While Willams is certainly having a bit of a struggle with letting go of the sport she’s played since a young girl, she is positioning herself to become more than Serena Williams, the tennis star. With 23 Grand Slam titles and dozens more to her credit, there is no doubt that Serena Williams will live on as an inspiration to other young girls of all backgrounds that wish to take up the sport.
Read the full op-ed
here.
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