‘I’m living for the day,’ Serena Williams makes a shocking statement about her retirement
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Serena Williams
The world is still in shock about World No.1 Ash Barty’s retirement news. The Australian, on March 23, announced that she will be retiring from tennis at the age of 25. Barty is a 3-time grand slam champion and won the Australian Open just two months ago. She was the best player amongst the current lot by a mile and was just one US Open title away from completing her career slam.
Many are comparing Barty’s early retirement to that of Serena Williams and Roger Federer’s. Serena and Federer both are in their 40s and have still not retired. They are currently eyeing another comeback in their 40s.
After Barty’s retirement, Serena was naturally asked when she will be hanging her boots. The 23-time grand slam champion said that every player thinks about retirement 5 years into playing tennis given the intensity of the sport. She said that she doesn’t know when she’ll retire and that she is currently living for the day.
“I think every tennis player thinks about the R-word [retirement] as soon as they hit five years because tennis is so intense, it’s literally 11 months out of the year. But I don’t know. I’m living for the day and I always tell people, ‘I’m not planning for tomorrow, only in business, and when it comes to tennis, I’m planning just for today,’” Serena said.
Serena Williams on Naomi Osaka’s heckling incident
At Indian Wells last week, 4-time grand slam champion Naomi Osaka was heckled by the crowd after which she was in tears. Serena, who herself faced the same thing 2 decades back addressed the issue. Serena was subjected to heckling by the Californian crowd in 2001 famously boycotted the tournament for 14 years until her return in 2015.
“That was my whole life, trying to prove to people that I was better than that [their meanness],” she said. “And that’s what I’m doing now in a different way. I love proving that athletes can turn and have an amazing career.”
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Lakshya Chopra
(2595 Articles Published)