"Retirement? I prefer evolving"- Serena Williams reacts to article on her calling it a day on tennis
Serena Williams has made it clear that she is not an avid admirer of the term 'retirement'.
The 40-year-old wrote in an article for Vogue that she will step away from tennis later this season.
Naturally, many media outlets wrote stories about the legend's comments, with Forbes publishing an article titled: "Serena Williams Serves Up A New Vision Of Life And Retirement."
The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion shared the article on Twitter and said that she prefers the term 'forever evolving' to 'retirement'. She also tagged her company Serena Ventures in the tweet.
"We all transform. Retirement? I prefer forever evolving," Williams tweeted."
We all transform. Retirement? I prefer forever evolving. @SerenaVentures
forbes.com/sites/josephco…
In her column for Vogue, Williams said that she did not like the term retirement and instead called her leaving tennis an evolution.
“I have never liked the word retirement," the 40-year-old said. "It doesn’t feel like a modern word to me....Maybe the best word to describe what I’m up to is evolution. I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me.”
Williams also stated that she and her husband have been trying to have another child and that she does not want to be pregnant again while playing tennis.
"In the last year, Alexis and I have been trying to have another child, and we recently got some information from my doctor that put my mind at ease and made me feel that whenever we’re ready, we can add to our family," Serena Williams added. "I definitely don’t want to be pregnant again as an athlete. I need to be two feet into tennis or two feet out."
Serena Williams has won just one match this season
Serena Williams has triumphed in just one out of three matches so far this season. The American's win came over Nuria Parrizas-Diaz in the opening round of the Canadian Open. However, she lost to 12th seed Belinda Bencic in the second round.
Williams will compete at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati and will be up against Emma Raducanu in the first round. Neither player has been particularly impressive this season and it will be interesting to see who comes out on top.
Emma Raducanu was born in 2002 (on Nov. 13).
At that time, Serena Williams:
- had won 210 matches (0.826 win rate)
- was world #1
- had won 19 WTA titles, 4 of which were GS
- had defeated players like Graf, Hingis, Venus, Clijsters, Henin
Next week, they will play each other. https://t.co/TMHH5B2DKX
The winner of the match will face Victoria Azarenka in the second round of the Western & Southern Open.