Serena Williams to retire from tennis after US Open this year

The most successful tennis player in the 'Open-Era', male or female, Serena Williams, is set to retire this year after the US Open. The 23 Grand Slam singles titles holder, has announced this in an article in Vogue Magazine.

Serena will retire after the U.S. Open, which will start in late August. Will there be a final hurrah? It's as if Williams has anticipated this question from her fans.

“I don’t know if I will be ready to win New York. But I’m going to try,” she writes.

Williams has 73 career singles titles and 23 career doubles titles, most of which came with her elder sister Venus.

"I’ve been reluctant to admit that I have to move on from playing tennis. It’s like a taboo topic. It comes up, and I start to cry," writes the tennis legend in a heartfelt piece where she has taken the reader through her formative years and thanked the people who have helped her in her record-breaking journey.

The tennis star has often been called the best tennis player to have graced the courts and in the article, she does admit that the 'GOAT' debate got her chasing Margret Court’s record.

“There are people who say I’m not the GOAT because I didn’t pass Margaret Court’s record of 24 grand slam titles, which she achieved before the ‘open era’ that began in 1968,” Williams writes. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want that record.”

Williams has written about how she plans to get more involved in Serena Ventures going ahead. The firm raised $111 million in outside financing and banks this year.

"Seventy-​eight percent of our portfolio happens to be companies started by women and people of color, because that’s who we are. On the other hand, my husband is white, and it’s important to me to be inclusive of everyone. Serena Ventures has been an all-female business until recently, when we brought in our first guy—a diversity hire!" she writes.