Earlier this year we shared that Serena Williams is ready to retire and settle down with more babies — revealing that she was “evolving away from tennis.” Honoring her legendary strides, TIME Magazine is calling her “The Greatest,” as she again bids farewell to the sport that she and her sister Venus Williams “changed forever, period.”
In a new cover feature with TIME Magazine, Serena Williams discusses what she gave the world. The magazine recognizes the 23 Grand-Slam-Title Winner as “the greatest female athlete of all time — perhaps the greatest athlete of all time.”
It should be noted that 10 of those 23 titles were won before she turned 30 when most players retire or fall behind in rankings.
Unapologetic and proud, Serena makes it known what she and Venus have contributed to tennis over decades.
“We changed the game of tennis. We changed how people play, period. People never attacked. People never took balls early. People never served like this. People never had to play so hard to beat two Black girls from Compton.”
As for what is next, Serena says she’s ready to give her soon-to-be 5-year-old daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. more siblings. She says biology has tried to force her hand at retiring, and she’s accepted — stating, “There’s no anger. I’m ready for the transition.”
Serena adds, “I can’t imagine my life without my sisters. When I look at Olympia, I’m really not performing at my peak, by not trying harder to give her that sibling. Coming from a big family, and coming from five, there’s nothing better.”
Aside from building a bigger family, Serena will refocus her curiosity and her drive into her own investment firm, Serena Ventures. Like her husband, Alexis Ohanian — the venture-capital investor who co-founded Reddit — Serena has invested in more than a dozen companies now worth more than $1 billion.
Via her investment firm, those companies include Master-Class, Impossible Foods, and Tonal. Serena also prides herself on having a diverse portfolio.
Nearly 80% of the companies she’s invested in were founded by women or people of color. She says, “It’s not that I’ve lost my passion for tennis. I just get more love and more joy out of what I do in the VC space.”
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