Serena Williams is arguably the greatest tennis player of all time, male or female. The tennis champion, who has dominated the court since the age of 14, is now 42 years old and now faces a new challenge.
Williams began winding down her athletic career in 2017, when she married husband Alex Ohanian and gave birth to their first daughter, Olympia.
That same year, Williams won her last Grand Slam title. The former champion continued to compete until 2022, when she said that year’s U.S. Open would be her last.
Williams lost in the third round and faded into the sunset as a legend. Before her final match, Williams wrote in Vogue that she didn’t like the word “retirement,” so she chose to say: “I’m here to tell you that I’m moving away from tennis and toward Other things that can be related to tennis.” That’s important to me. “
Less than a year later, she gave birth to her second daughter, Adira, in August. Since then, Williams has been transitioning from a full-time athlete to a stay-at-home mother of two. But the competitive drive to win a championship remains within her.
In an X (Twitter) post, the 23-time Grand Slam champion described what it was like to go from being driven by a lifelong goal to where he is now. Williams said: “I’m not used to training without a goal, or to be honest – I don’t have a championship in mind. “It’s so weird. “
Fans found a solution for Williams: not retiring, or in Williams’ words, “evolving.”
“We missed you so much…come back.”
“I mean you can come back anytime.”
“Well, let’s think about the championship.”
Ohanian agrees with fans and seems ready to be a super supportive housewife again.
“So… you want to go back to tour?” the Reddit co-founder commented on his wife’s post, along with a gif of a scene from “Dumb and Dumber” in which Jim Carrey’s character said: “So are you telling me there’s still a chance? Yes!”
As Williams has said before, she never really retired. Following her evolution announcement, the tennis legend told the San Francisco Standard last October that the chances of her pulling a “Tom Brady” back into the sport were very high.
If she returns, she’ll have to face the woman following in her footsteps, Coco Gauff.
Gauff recently shocked the world by defeating the world’s number one female tennis player at the US Open. The 19-year-old is ranked third in the world rankings and is one of only three teenagers in the top 50.
Gauff was compared to Williams after her Open win but she calmed down when she said “she’s the GOAT”. I wish I could do half of what she did. But I don’t compare myself to her. “
Gauff went on to praise Williams, saying Williams was her idol and she was “happy to be a product of her legacy.”
The Atlanta native also said, “My only regret for the rest of my life is that I couldn’t play her.”
If Williams can do that, she can change that regret as they battle to see if the torch has truly been passed or if the older players still have it.