One of the greatest players in tennis is retiring: Serena Williams is retiring at the age of 40. The US Open in New York was her last tournament. The 23-time Grand Slam winner wants to devote herself to her family (she has a daughter) in the future. She announced the end of her career in Vogue and on Instagram at the beginning of August. “I feel great pain. It is the hardest thing I could ever imagine,” she wrote.
She celebrated her first major success in 1999 at the US Open. She won her last Grand Slam tournament in 2017 at the Australian Open, where she once again defeated her sister Venus. After that, injuries kept stopping them. Now ends a career that lasted over 27 years and is one of the most impressive things tennis has to offer.
“Honestly, she’s the strongest force in this sport. That shouldn’t make Federer or Nadal any smaller. I just think she’s the greatest thing there will ever be in this sport,” said one of her successors, the Japanese Naomi Osaka. For Nadal herself she has long been “a legend”, and world number one Iga Swiatek admires Williams’ triple burden as a professional player, mother and businesswoman: “I would be happy if I could do it someday.”
With her successes and self-confident demeanor, she also inspired the black population in the USA. US tennis hope Coco Gauff revealed: “Growing up, I never thought I was different because the number one in the world was someone who looked like me.”
Bye bye Serena!