In an essay for Vogue’s September 2022 issue, Serena Williams announced that she would be retiring from tennis after committing to the sport for most of her life. The retirement is a decision that she made in order to focus on expanding her family and Serena Ventures, a venture capital firm she founded in 2008.
“I have never liked the word retirement,” Williams said in the essay. “It doesn’t feel like a modern word to me. 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. 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.”
Serena Williams Becomes Emotional In Interview
Williams married Reddit co-founder and former executive chairman, Alexis Ohanian, in 2017, the same year she had her daughter, Olympia. The essay reveals that after Williams gave birth to her, now, 5-year-old daughter, she played tennis while healing from a C-section and second pulmonary embolism, suffering through postpartum depression, and still breastfeeding.
The tennis icon admits that if she had the choice, she would continue playing while expanding her family, as the realization of leaving tennis causes her a “great deal of pain.”
“Believe me, I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family. I don’t think it’s fair,” Williams said in the essay. “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. Maybe I’d be more of a Tom Brady if I had that opportunity.”
Williams confirmed that she received news from her doctor that “put [her] mind at ease and made [her] feel that whenever [they’re] ready, [they] can add to [their] family.” But, she doesn’t want to be a pregnant athlete again.
Initially trained by her parents and mentored by her tennis-playing sister, Venus Williams, while living in Compton, CA, Williams went pro in 1995. Her career hasn’t been a smooth journey. Many times, the Williams sisters had to deal with racism and sexism from the sports community, let alone chatter from critics. However, they chose to use the negativity to esteem their dreams.
“There were so many matches I won because something made me angry or someone counted me out,” Williams said. “That drove me. I’ve built a career on channeling anger and negativity and turning it into something good.”
Nowadays so many parents say, “Let your kids do what they want!” Well, that’s not what got me where I am. I didn’t rebel as a kid. I worked hard, and I followed the rules.
Throughout her career, Williams has won a total of 23 Grand Slams, including seven Australian Opens, seven Wimbledon Championships, six U.S. Opens, and three French Opens. The four-time Olympic Gold Medalist was ranked the No. 1 singles world tennis player for 319 weeks by the Women’s Tennis Association. She also holds the title as the highest paid female athlete of all time with a record $29 million earned in 2016.
Serena Ventures was inspired by Williams’ love for investing in early-stage businesses. The investment capital firm was one of the early investors in MasterClass, and has also funded Esusu, Impossible Foods, Noom, and Tonal, among others. Williams prides herself on nearly 80% of the firm’s investment portfolio funding businesses owned by people of color and women.
