Tributes have started to pour in for Serena Williams after the tennis legend announced her impending retirement in the September issue of Vogue Magazine. The American great is soon to call time on her sensational career spanning over 25 years, which included 23 grand slam tiles.
She is currently participating in the Canadian Open with the aim to compete in the US Open at the end of the month, which could prove to be the last tournament of her career. Since announcing her intentions to step away from the sport, fellow celebrities and sporting greats have sent messages of encouragement to the icon.
Friend and seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton said: “Such an Icon!! Queen!! GOAT!! We love you @serenawilliams”. Kim Kardashian commented under Serena’s Instagram post regarding her retirement with a goat and flowers emojis, while actress Gabrielle Union shared the post on her Instagram story with a photo of a goat's face and added: “Can't wait to see what's next friend.”
Fellow tennis icon Billie Jean King also had nothing but praise as she gushed: “When Serena steps away from tennis, she will leave as the sport’s greatest player. After a career that has inspired a new generation of players and fans, she will forever be known as a champion who won on the court and raised the global profile of the sport off of it.”
John McEnroe spoke to USTA Today about the impact Williams has had on the game and her place in the upper echelons of sporting immortality. “She should do whatever she wants. She’s an icon,” he said. “Her place in American society has gone to a place where she deserves it after everything she’s accomplished, everything she’s done.
“I don’t know the answer whether she wants to play again, I don’t think she needs to play again. She’s in that level where Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Tom Brady are. She’s like one of the all-time greatest athletes in the history of any sport – male or female. It seems to be a great place in her life. She’s added a lot.
“Anyone that saw the movie [King Richard] realises where they came from and where she is now is unbelievable so she can spend the rest of her life going ‘not bad huh?’”
Meanwhile, Coco Gauff, the current world No 11, credited Williams as her inspiration for wanting to play the game of tennis. "I grew up watching her. That’s the reason why I play tennis,” said Gauff after her first-round victory at the Canadian Open in Toronto on Tuesday.
“Tennis being a predominantly white sport, it definitely helped a lot. Because I saw somebody who looked like me dominating the game. It made me believe that I could dominate too.” It was clear in the 40-year-old’s announcement that the decision to step away from tennis was an incredibly difficult one, but she is looking forward to exploring a different version of herself. "I know that a lot of people are excited about and look forward to retiring, and I really wish I felt that way,” Williams wrote.
"There is no happiness in this topic for me. I know it’s not the usual thing to say, but I feel a great deal of pain. It’s the hardest thing that I could ever imagine. I hate it. I hate that I have to be at this crossroads. I keep saying to myself, I wish it could be easy for me, but it’s not." She added on Instagram: "There comes a time in life when we have to decide to move in a different direction.
"That time is always hard when you love something so much. My goodness do I enjoy tennis. But now, the countdown has begun. I have to focus on being a mom, my spiritual goals and finally discovering a different, but just exciting Serena."
