Serena Williams hints at staggering tennis retirement backflip months after giving birth
Serena Williams has sent the tennis world into a spin after hinting at a possible return to the court. On Tuesday, the 42-year-old mother of two teased that she was on the verge of playing professionally once again, just nine months after giving birth to her second child.
The 23-time grand slam champion revealed back in 2022 that she was retiring from the sport after dominating the competition for more than a decade. But a cryptic tweet has made fans wonder if she is ready to return and attempt once again to equal or surpass Margaret Court’s record 24 grand slam titles. On Tuesday Williams wrote on X: “I’m ready to hit some balls again”.
Williams last played a competitive match at the 2022 US Open, when she was beaten by Aussie Ajla Tomljanovic. The younger Williams sister amassed an incredible 73 career singles titles and collected more than $94million in prize money but Court’s record is one thing she never managed to break.
Williams retired in 2022 and has since had her second child – Adira River, who turns one in August – with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. Before her retirement in 2022, Williams revealed that she would soon be moving in a “different direction” and it was time for her to move on with her life.
“I have never liked the word retirement,” Williams wrote. “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.
