Serena Williams will say ‘farewell’ to tennis after U.S. Open

In an essay shared in Vogue, Serena Williams wrote that the decision to leave the sport wasn't an easy one, but she plans to evolve other parts of her life beyond tennis.

Serena Williams announced Tuesday she will be walking away from tennis after the U.S. Open.

In an essay shared by Vogue, Williams wrote the decision to leave the sport wasn’t an easy one; and it’s certainly not a retirement.

“I have never liked the word retirement,” Williams, 40, wrote. “It doesn’t feel like a modern word to me.”

Instead, Williams sees her tennis farewell as an “evolution.”

“I’ve been thinking of this as a transition, but I want to be sensitive about how I use that word, which means something very specific and important to a community of people,” Williams wrote for the September cover story. “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.”

Always fierce in everything she does, Williams has “evolved” several parts of her life in recent years, including with the creation of her business Serena Ventures, a venture capital firm, and the birth of her daughter Olympia, who turns five in August.

Williams wrote that she is hanging up her tennis racket to focus on expanding her family and business.

She will, however, still compete in the 2022 U.S. Open, which begins Aug. 23.