Williams says there is “no happiness in this topic for me”, adding: “I feel a great deal of pain. It’s the hardest thing that I could ever imagine. I hate it.”
Serena Williams has said she is “evolving away from tennis” and is looking to “grow her family” as she announced plans to retire.
Unlike her friend Caroline Wozniacki, however, who “felt a sense of relief when she retired in 2020”, Williams has admitted there is “no happiness in this topic for me”.
She writes in Vogue magazine: “I feel a great deal of pain. It’s the hardest thing that I could ever imagine. I hate it.”
She continues: “I’m torn: I don’t want it to be over. I love to win. I love the battle. I love to entertain.”
But she knows “this is it, the end of a story that started in Compton, California, with a little black girl who just wanted to play tennis”.
