On Monday, Serena Williams played her opening round match at the tournament in Toronto. She won in straight sets, making it her first match win in more than a year. Then on Tuesday, her Vogue cover came out, and in the essay, she revealed that she would retire from tennis at the US Open. Making Toronto, Cincinnati and New York her final tournaments. Wednesday night, Serena came out on court and played her second-round match. She lost in straight sets. The tournament organizers gave her some time on court to talk about her retirement. She started crying. Everyone cried. It is super-emotional!
There’s a lot of talk about “what will tennis look like without Serena” but honestly… looking back on the past five years, she’s been preparing us. We knew that Serena wouldn’t play indefinitely forever. After her injury at the 2021 Wimbledon, she was gone from the tour for almost a full year. Before that, she was only playing a handful of events. It’s been a slow goodbye, almost as if she was getting her fans used to the idea that she wasn’t going to be around. I love her for wanting to do some final tournaments as a last hurrah and a way to say goodbye. But damn it, this hurts. You can tell that Serena is really in her feelings about retirement too.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
I was crying watching that last night! Ugh…..The U.S. Open is going to be devastating. I’m a mess just thinking about it.
I was so sad for her especially after she played a stellar first round match. I debated grabbing tickets for last night but decided to wait for the third round as to not cancel plans and now I am so bummed I wasn’t in attendance. She is such a great athlete, leader, and ambassador for tennis. As she has gotten into the later stages of her career, she has shown us her vulnerability more and that has made me love her even more.
G.O.A.T! I hope she plays amazing and enjoys herself in the US Open.
I love Serena so much. You can tell this is really, really hard for her to walk away. I hope her farewell tour goes exactly how she hopes and that the rest of her days are filled with all the family and happiness she desires.
(I’ll also be devastated if she and Alexis ever break up, so KEEP THAT ON THE RAILS, FOLKS.)
It happens more often than not that elite athletes have trouble recognizing that they can’t be in their prime indefinitely, and don’t retire well past the point where they should have, and it’s just sad to watch them struggle with age. Serena choosing a time where she probably realizes she’s not winning any more slams but is still capable of winning matches is a pretty good, healthy time for her, imo. She won’t have the sad decline on record that everyone politely ignores the existence of that some other GOATs have.
Thank you Serena and Venus for changing the Sport of Tennis FOREVER… to a high power, action filled, play of excitement! Before you guys, it was like a bunch of “1920 doctors and nurses” running around on the court, chasing the birdie with a racket. I watched the William Sisters, as kids–killing it on the court with those devastating serves and slams.
Jehovah, be with you both and your families and friends.
Peace.
Hard agree with this – the Williams sisters made tennis fresh and interesting. I still mostly don’t care about it (or really any sport tbh), but theirs are names and faces that I recognize. I love what they did for women in sport, particularly WOC. I want her to be able to go out on her own terms, but I also would really like it if she went out with a win. She deserves it.
GOAT
The GOAT of GOATs. Has anyone been more dominant and influential in their sport than Serena Williams has been in tennis? Maybe Gretzky, but I’d put him second to Serena.
I can’t get behind these farewells because the press and some of the tennis establishment never respected Serena. We’re going to get bombarded by a lot of think pieces about her place in the sport but they won’t admit that Serena faced a lot of misogynoir. I still remember when she cut her foot most of the press thought she was lying about her injury so much so that they only believed her when she showed them her scar.
It was the mid 2000’s and the sniping about Serena was as loud as it could have been.
She came to Toronto to play, the local media started to use the term, either after/before fans displayed placards that had written G.O.A.T.
(She announced her retirement in Vogue for a reason.)
She is admired and respected here by most, I am happy that she got to have a proper “Good-bye”.
I saw Serena’s first win while visiting at Disney’s Florida. I started to follow the Williamses after seeing Venus on 60 minutes.
Toronto Thanks Serena!!
I wanted her to win, to go out on top. She deserves that. Maybe at the Open. Fingers crossed. Will Meghan be there, in disguise?
I was at Serena’s match last night. It was an incredibly emotional goodbye. Serena was crying pretty hard and so were many in the crowd.
It sucks that she didn’t play well in the match. It was a really off night for her. The crowd was really pulling for her, but we just couldn’t get her going.
Was really happy to be there and have a chance to pay respects to the GOAT though.
That journalist’s work was amazing.
I hope she felt how she is loved in canada. Tennis will not be the same without her.