23-Grand Slam champion Serena Williams has announced that she is “moving away” from tennis, as she doesn’t like the word retirement. Either way, the sentiment is the same: she is ready to say goodbye to the sport she has dedicated more than two decades to.
Williams hadn’t played for almost a year since she suffered an injury in Wimbledon 2021, after slipping at the Center Court. She decided to play again in London, where she was eliminated in the first round by Harmony Tan.
Then, she returned to courts for the Canadian Open, where she lost in the second-round to Belinda Bencic, and Cincinnati, where she fell in the first round against Emma Raducanu. After those two tough losses: is Serena Williams playing in the US Open? Here, check out her schedule.
Will Serena Williams play at the US Open 2022?
After announcing she was “moving away” from tennis in an essay for Vogue USA, many fans were worried she wasn’t going to play in New York. However, the tennis legend plans to say her goodbye to tennis in Flushing Meadows. In her essay she wrote that she doesn’t “know if I will be ready to win” but was “going to try.”
Williams also said that she knows “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.”
However, it doesn’t matter if she loses in the first round or ends up winning the tournament, even if she doesn’t want to, her goodbye to tennis will be ceremonial. That’s the only way it can be after her amazing, unrepeatable career.