by her. they deserve everything. and i wouldn t be serena if there wasn t venus. for my husband and everyone and their thoughts. once in a lifetime or once in a generation there are certain athletes who come along and they transcend the sport. we saw it with tiger woods. we saw it with michael jordan. serena to me she did that for tennis. she changed wearing your emotions on your sleeve and being who you are. she made it a more welcoming and inviting sport for everyone. she revolutionized it just by being herself. she was so dominant for so long, especially at the most difficult time to be dominant in womens sports and womens tennis. she has never allowed anybody to dictate what she ll say or what she ll do. serena has always played on and off the court on her terms. com e on. hi. so this is from serena s essay she wrote in her book. i never wanted to have to choose between tennis and family. if i were a guy i wouldn t be writing this. because i d be out the
i can do that. oh, you got a fish. good job! i can totally relate to serena about not wanting to share or even say the word retirement. when it was time for me to retire it was extremely difficult. it was hard for me to say. i never spoke about retirement. our oldest ace was turning 5. it was getting more and more difficult to leave my son at home. as they get older and they start telling you how much they miss you, that tugs on your heart. it s so hard. olympia is my roommate. i woke up to go to the bathroom and i got a surprise. and i m thinking to myself you got to flush the toilet, girl. they say your kid grow up fast
of our family. don t get me wrong. i love every second with olympia. i m turning 41 this month and something s got to give. 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. the pain in the article that serena talked about, people don t realize it and i m glad she s very vocal about that. people don t realize that you sometimes do have to pick motherhood over athletics. the greatest thing in my life is being a mother, and the gift of being able to have children and steward them into this world is something that i would never give up. and then i put myself in serena s shoes who is quite obviously still hungry, still loves the game, and she also wants to grow her family. that really pulled on my heartstrings because it s a decision that all working moms
playing your final game there s so many emotions that are going through your head, but you re still that competitor. can you imagine just the conflicting emotions and the excitement and love and the bittersweetness of it all. it s got to be so heavy. she comes out with a diamond encrusted cape on the first round and the diamond encrusted shoes. and there s diamonds in her hair. and then you see her daughter in the stands, you know, with the beads in her hair and just so excited to watch mommy and looking like a mini serena. and olympia is taking a picture of her. i can t even imagine just, like, enjoy that filled serena s heart seeing that. so she wins round 1, wins round 2, beats the number 2 seat. she was putting on the ultimate show for the city that knows shows better than any other city on earth. and all of a sudden she met her
serena was hurting herself. she was in pain because she lost a match, and this would have been the moment that she could have perhaps won another major, tying margaret court s record. i m fairly certain in saying she would have broken that record if she hadn t had olympia. i think she understands that the bigger picture is how great her life is now with her family and her daughter. and she wouldn t give olympia back for any amount of grand slams. if you ve watched her over the last few years you know that her love for the game is different. she doesn t have that same fire. and so there are all these rumors of it s time it s time for you to retire. it s time for you to take a break. when you look back at the 2021 australian open, when she left the court, you know, she kind of put her hand over her heart in thanking the crowd. a lot of people thought that, hey, are you coming back?