Serena Williams Says She Should Have Retired 10 Years Ago To Give Her The Opportunity To Fully ‘Enjoy’ Life

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Serena Williams’ retirement announcement over the summer may have come 10 years too late for the athlete, who says she should have ended her tennis career a decade ago. Williams appeared on |The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” on Tuesday evening, admitting that there have been other things she’s wanted to turn her attention to, but competing in tennis ultimately prevented her from doing so.

Now that she’s officially retired, though, the 40-year-old finally has the opportunity to “enjoy” her life. “The whole time, I was stressed out, I thought I was going to be really miserable and scared with this whole article coming out,” Williams said about her announcement to quit tennis.

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“I should have done it ten years ago. I always thought that at the end of it, I would just leave quietly and not say anything and just make an announcement on social media.” But don’t expect Williams to sit back and put her feet up now that she’s made her exit from tennis because according to the Compton-native, “I’m not going to be relaxing. There is so much more for me.”

“You have to think I have been playing tennis since I was literally in a stroller. There is a picture of Venus pushing me in a stroller. For me to suddenly have to be done it was like well this is a big thing. When it came out, I was actually relieved. I didn’t expect to feel that way but I felt good.”

There are so many options on the table now for Williams to participate in new ventures and try things she didn’t have the chance to partake in, so fans shouldn’t expect the mother-of-one to disappear from the limelight — but giving up tennis has definitely opened up the chance for her to focus on other passion projects of hers.

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“I just feel like I’m at an age where I definitely feel I have a lot more to give and there’s a lot more that I want to do. So I’m not going to be relaxing. There is so much more for me. I feel it’s more of an evolution of Serena.”

“There are so many things that I’ve been wanting to do for so many years,’ Serena added. ‘I have had such a passion for tennis for so long that I have never done it. Now it’s time for me to start to enjoy those things.”

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