Is Serena Williams Actually Retiring? The Queen Hints at Potential Australian Open Appearance Following U.S. Open Exit

Is Serena Williams actually prepared to walk away from the sport of tennis after two decades of dominance?

On Friday night, Williams’ retirement tour at the U.S. Open came to an unfortunate conclusion when she lost in three sets to Croatia’s Ajla Tomljanović. Despite the loss, Williams was still the player being interviewed on-court at Arthur Ashe Stadium following the match.

While being celebrated by the capacity-crowd, Williams hinted that this might not have been the last time she tries to win a major.

Specifically, she made it sound like we just might see her play in the Australian Open to kick off next year’s slate.

“I don’t know. I’m not thinking about that. I always did love Australia, though [smiling],” she said. But yeah, you know what, I’ve come a long way since last year at Wimbledon. Just not sure if that was my last moment or not. Making it a different moment I think is much better. It takes a lot of work to get here. Clearly I’m still capable. It takes a lot more than that. I’m ready to, like, be a mom, explore a different version of Serena. Technically in the world I’m still super young, so I want to have a little bit of a life while I’m still walking.”

When looking at the clip of Serena Williams’ comments, she seemed to be teasing fans. But given her next-level competitiveness, I don’t think it would come as a surprise to many if she decided to give it one last run.

Earlier in the year when announcing she was stepping away, Williams was adamant that she didn’t want to think of it as a retirement.

“I have never liked the word retirement,” she wrote in her vogue piece. “It doesn’t feel like a modern word to me. I’ve been thinking of this as a transition, but I want to be sensitive about how I use that word, which means something very specific and important to a community of people. 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. A few years ago I quietly started Serena Ventures, a venture capital firm. Soon after that, I started a family. I want to grow that family.”

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