The American player announced in the magazine “Vogue” and on her Instagram account on Tuesday that she will head towards “other things that are important for [she]” after the New York tournament in early September .
Le Monde
The American Serena Williams signed on Monday August 8 in the first round of the Toronto tournament, her first victory of the year, six weeks after her missed return to Wimbledon. It was also his first victory since June 4, 2021 and his 3rd victorious round in Roland-Garros.
But, beyond this statistic, it is above all a little sentence dropped overnight this match by the ex-numéro a world, which caught attention. in the Magazine Vogue , she announces that she will move away from tennis after the US Open (from August 29 to September 11).
While stressing that she does not like the word “retirement”, the player, who will be 41 years old on September 26, declares that she will head towards “other things that are important for [she]” . “The countdown has started,” she also wrote, in a post on her Instagram account.
“There is a time in life when you have to decide to take a new road. It is always a difficult time when you love what you do so much. And God I like tennis”, explains The American, saying wanting to “focus on her role as mom, her spiritual objectives to discover a new but just as exciting Serena”.
In February 2021, in Melbourne, Serena Williams had nevertheless assured: “If one day, I do my farewell, I will not say it to anyone”. Eliminated in the semi-finals by the Japanese naomi dare earlier, she had made a gesture towards the crowd, her hand on her heart, which had opened the path to speculation.
“not Very gifted for farewells “
“I was not ready to win Wimbledon this year. And I don’t know if I will be ready to win in New York. But I will try,” she also wrote. In London, Serena Williams, had been eliminated in the first round by the French Harmony Tan.
The American, who came back from injury (she injured herself to the hamstrings of the right leg on June 29, 2021 in Wimbledon) had been invited to the London lawn, its current classification (1,204 e global before the tournament) no longer allowing him to integrate the final table of a Grand Slam, nor even the qualifications.
New York promises to be a nice outcome: Serena Williams won 6 of her 23 titles in the Grand Chelem tournaments (Australian Open, Roland-Garros, Wimbledon, US Open). With these 23 titles, she will remain at a length from the record held by the Australian Margaret Court, behind which she ran, in vain, since her victory at the Australian Open in 2017.
saying that she is “not very good at farewell”, Serena Williams launched her fans: “But know that I am more grateful to you than I can never express it with words”.