End of an era
American and international tennis great, Serena Williams is drawing the curtain on her illustrious career, as she announced that she’s “evolving away from tennis”.
What’d she mean by “evolving away from tennis”?
Well, declaring her difficulty in coming to the decision, the 23-time grand slam winner described her pain at having to stop playing the game, but stated her dislike of the word “retirement”, and said “evolving away” from the sport is a more appropriate way to put it. “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”, she said.
What’s she up to?
Noting her desire to grow her family, the fan favourite disclosed that she’s found a new love, Business. “A few years ago I quietly started Serena Ventures, a venture capital firm. Soon after that, I started a family. I want to grow that family”, she wrote in the statement. Serena burst onto the scene when she turned Pro in 1995, a year after her sister, Venus. At age 17 and beating the then world No. 4 (Monica Seles), No. 2 (Lindsay Davenport), and No. 1 (Martina Hingis), Serena won her first singles grand slam at the US Open in 1999.
Her last grand slam title came in 2017 at the Australian Open in Melbourne, while she was pregnant with her daughter, Olympia. The Williams sisters were so dominant in the sport in the early 2000s that Serena met Venus in 8 of 13 Grand Slam singles finals between 2001 and 2009, with the pair also facing off in the 2017 Australian Open final.
