Serena Williams Announces Retirement From Tennis And Says She'd Still Be "Playing And Winning" If She Were A Man

Growing up in Compton, California, Serena Williams had a dream from a young age to be a tennis champion. Her father raised both her and her sister Venus to become world-renowned athletes. But after having a daughter with her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, she has decided to retire from tennis and focus more on her family. She wrote an essay for Vogue to share more about her decision to leave the sport behind.

Serena Williams Announces Retirement From Tennis and Says She'd Still Be "Playing and Winning" If She Were a Man

The birth of Serena's daughter in 2017 was a traumatic experience that led to multiple surgeries and a near-death scare. Her daughter is four years old now and has been asking Serena for a younger sibling. She wants to expand her family and she knows she'll have to take a step back from tennis in order to do that.

"Sometimes before bed, [Alexis] prays to Jehovah to bring her a baby sister," she wrote. "I’m the youngest of five sisters myself, and my sisters are my heroes, so this has felt like a moment I need to listen very carefully to."

"Believe me, I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family," she said. "I don’t think it’s fair."

Serena has always been outspoken about her beliefs and opinions about women's rights. She has received much backlash in the past about her treatment of umpires and linesmen on the court, and each time she finds herself in hot water over her behavior at a match, she insists that she's fighting for women's rights. In her essay, she insists that it's unfair that she feels the need to retire from tennis when she likely wouldn't need to if she were a man.

"If I were a guy, I wouldn’t be writing this because I’d be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labor of expanding our family," she said. "Maybe I’d be more of a Tom Brady if I had that opportunity."

"Don’t get me wrong: I love being a woman, and I loved every second of being pregnant with Olympia. I was one of those annoying women who adored being pregnant and was working until the day I had to report to the hospital—although things got super complicated on the other side," she continued. "And I almost did do the impossible: A lot of people don’t realize that I was two months pregnant when I won the Australian Open in 2017. But I’m turning 41 this month, and something’s got to give."

She doesn't like using the word "retirement". So instead she says she is "evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me." She started a venture capital firm a few years ago called Serena Ventures. "Soon after that, I started a family. I want to grow that family," she said.

Serena says the only person she's really talked to about her retirement is her therapist; it's difficult for her to approach the subject with her parents. But after watching some of her friends and fellow athletes, like Caroline Wozniacki and Ashleigh Barty, retire from tennis, she feels that she'll be happier to leave the sport behind.

"This sport has given me so much. I love to win. I love the battle. I love to entertain," she said. But now she's choosing to invest her time and energy into something more important: her family.