Serena Williams has earned her future: stop asking, leave her alone

Serena Williams played her last official match at the US Open on 3 September 2022, and she said goodbye to the tennis world in the fantastic setting of the Arthur Ashe Stadium. The American legend stopped in the third round of the last Grand Slam of 2022, losing in three sets against one of the best versions of Ajla Tomljanovic.

Serena, in tears at the end of the match against the Australian, said: “Even if it’s something I never thought about. I was just a girl trying to play tennis. It’s been an incredible week, it’s like the whole people want to push me further I went on a crescendo, finding my game, I should have started playing a little earlier this year.”

In an exclusive interview with CBS Mornings, Serena Williams is back to talk about her retirement. She told: “I just feel that, to me, withdrawal is such a big word for someone my age. It’s not something I feel is good for me, I’ve never been able to stay in certain patterns, I’ve always tried to get out of them, so even the concept of retreat is not something I can accept with serenity. Actually I wasn’t happy at all after the match against Tomljanovic.

I was there to keep going and to keep winning. I thought: I can’t believe I let that game go. Right now I am allowing myself to be tired, to relax and to be alone at times. It’s harder than I ever imagined. I’ve never allowed myself to do anything like this before. I’m definitely evolving, but it all feels so different when you retire. A come back? It is hard to say. I would say no, at least not at the moment. I gave my whole life to tennis. And now it’s time to dedicate myself to something else.”

Serena has given everything, now it’s only right that she enjoys life and what the future has in store for her. Family, business, passions. She, also thanks to the support of her husband and her family, can look beyond tennis. She deserved it.

Serena has earned the right to go beyond the tennis legend her. There’s no need for a new Grand Slam title to say that she’s the greatest tennis player ever, and the greatest sportswoman of any era.

In a hundred years she will remember her name, not that of the other supporting actors who lived her tennis was hers. Enough, it’s too much to ask her about her comeback: leave Serena Williams alone with her future.