Serena Williams, like other talismanic sports athletes in the world has written her name in gold in the game of tennis as she is one of the biggest names in tennis with 7 Wimbledon titles under her belt and 23 Grand slam titles.
Her glorious tennis career spans almost three decades as she began playing when she was a teenager. In that time, she has made more than $350 million in endorsement deals which brings her total earnings to $450 million. However, she has concluded plans to hang her racket after the US 2022 Open.
In an essay written by her to Vogue, Serena shared her plans to retire. She said she couldn’t talk about it with her husband or her family because of how heavy it weighed on her.
Only sharing those thoughts with her therapist at first, Serena was finally ready to talk about the decision to retire after the US 2022 Open.
While stating her reasons for retirement, Serena said in her essay that she never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family. I don’t think it’s fair. She stated that if she was a man, she would not be writing the essay or even announcing a retirement because her wife would be doing the physical labour of growing the family. She added that she loved being a woman, and she loved every moment of being pregnant with her daughter and even worked until the day it was time to give birth.
As natural as childbirth is, it is also one of the most dangerous things a woman can go through. Serena experienced complications following the birth of her daughter, Olympia. While the pregnancy and carrying to term was relatively easy for Serena, the birth was not. Olympia was born through an emergency c-section after her heart rate dropped dramatically during contractions.
She had a pulmonary embolism which resulted in an intense cough that popped her stitches. When she went in for surgery for that to be corrected, doctors found a large hematoma in her abdomen.
When weighing her options and looking at everything she has accomplished, she wants to focus on her family and her business.
Serena Williams will also be playing in the U.S. Open, which started on Monday, August 29 after which she will retire.
