An honor. Many celebs took to social media to talk about Serena Williams’ last game. The tennis champion likely played her final match at the US Open in Flushing, New York on September 2, 2022, after she lost to Ajla Tomljanović.
After news broke of her loss, people took to Twitter to thank Serena for her dedication and showcase her hard work for her career. Michelle Obama tweeted, “Congrats on an amazing career, @SerenaWilliams! How lucky were we to be able to watch a young girl from Compton grow up to become one of the greatest athletes of all time. I’m proud of you, my friend—and I can’t wait to see the lives you continue to transform with your talents.” Lebron James also tweeted, “#SerenaWilliams THANK YOU 🐐!! You’re so damn DOPE!! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🤎” Former tennis champion Billie Jean King also cheered on Serena for her career, “Her incredible career made its mark on tennis history. And yet her greatest contributions may be yet to come. Thank you,
@serenawilliams. Your journey continues. #serena #USOpen”
The honors kept on flowing on social media as people like Oprah Winfrey, Tiger Woods, Jennifer Hudson, John Legend, Magic Johnson, Shonda Rhimes, Derek Jeter and Samuel L. Jackson posted about Serena’s achievements.
In her post-match interview, Williams thanked her whole family for helping her throughout her career.”Thank you, Daddy. I know you’re watching,” she said referring to her father Richard Williams. “Thanks, Mom. Oh, my God. I thank everyone that’s here, that’s been on my side so many years, decades. Oh, my gosh, literally decades. But it all started with my parents. And they deserve everything. So I’m really grateful for them.” She also graciously thanked her sister Venus Williams. “I wouldn’t be Serena if there wasn’t Venus, so thank you, Venus. She’s the only reason that Serena Williams ever existed.” She thanked her husband Alexis Ohanian and her daughter Olympia before addressing the crowd, “It’s been a fun ride. It’s been the most incredible ride and journey I’ve ever been on, I mean, in my life. I’m just so grateful to every single person that’s ever said, Go, Serena, in their life. I’m just so grateful,” she said. “You got me here.”
Serena Williams discussed the hard decision of retiring after the US Open in the September 2022 cover of Vogue. “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,” she said. “I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me. A few years ago I quietly started Serena Ventures, a venture capital firm. Soon after that, I started a family. I want to grow that family.” Serena married in 2017, and together they have a daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr, who is usually referred to Olympia. She confirmed her desire to expand her family. “These days, if I have to choose between building my tennis résumé and building my family, I choose the latter.”
She addressed her streak of Grand Slams and her contentment with retiring after this year. “I know there’s a fan fantasy that I might have tied Margaret that day in London, then maybe beat her record in New York, and then at the trophy ceremony say, ‘See ya!’ I get that. It’s a good fantasy. But I’m not looking for some ceremonial, final on-court moment. I’m terrible at goodbyes, the world’s worst. But please know that I am more grateful for you than I can ever express in words.”
Though she remains one of the greatest tennis players of all time and her tennis career may be over, she’s just getting started. “Over the years, I hope that people come to think of me as symbolizing something bigger than tennis. I admire Billie Jean because she transcended her sport. I’d like it to be: Serena is this and she’s that and she was a great tennis player and she won those slams.”
King Richard is available to stream on HBO Max. Here’s how to watch it for free.
Image: Courtesy of Atria.
For more about Serena and Venus Williams, read their father Richard Williams’ 2017 memoir, Black and White: The Way I See It. The book follows Richard’s life from his impoverished childhood in Shreveport, Louisiana, in the 1940s to the father of two of the greatest tennis players of all time: Serena and Venus Williams. . “I still feel really close to my father,” Serena says in the book. “We have a great relationship. There is an appreciation. There is a closeness because of what we’ve been through together, and a respect.” Black and White: The Way I See it is described as a story about how a “self-made man” with an “indomitable spirit” made it all possible for himself and his family.
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