Serena Williams says she is ready to step away from tennis after winning 23 Grand Slam titles, turning her focus to having another child and her business interests.
"I'm turning 41 this month, and something's got to give," Williams wrote in an essay released Tuesday by Vogue magazine.Williams, one of the greatest and most accomplished athletes in the history of her -- or any other -- sport, said she does not like the word retirement and prefers to think of this stage of her life as "evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me.
The American has won more Grand Slam singles titles in the professional era than any other woman or man. Only one player, Margaret Court, collected more, 24, although she won a portion of hers in the amateur era. But, Williams went on to write, "These days, if I have to choose between building my tennis resume and building my family, I choose the latter."
"Believe me, I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family. I don't think it's fair," said Williams, who was pregnant when she won the 2017 Australian Open for her last Grand Slam trophy. "If I were a guy, I wouldn't be writing this because I'd be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labor of expanding our family."