Twenty-three-time Grand Slam singles tennis champion Serena Williams recently held a gender reveal celebration for her second child. The GOAT, husband Alexis Ohanian and daughter Olympia will welcome another girl to the family. Given the new realities of her life and her legacy, this latest chapter should put any talk of a comeback to rest.
Williams’ Legacy Is Set
By any measure Williams is the greatest female tennis player of all-time. She’s on the shortlist for greatest tennis player period regardless of gender. It doesn’t matter that she hasn’t surpassed Margaret Court’s record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles. Nobody that understand the game believes Court is a superior player. She played in the 1960s and early ’70s.
Williams’ legacy is set. But last month she dropped a cryptic tweet that some interpreted as a comeback.
Maybe Williams is inspired by her bestie Caroline Wozniacki’s comeback after giving birth to two kids.
Retirement Is Tough For Competitive Athletes
This isn’t a commentary on women not being able to have families and careers. That’s obviously not true. Women can do both and millions around the world do it.
Williams should stay retired because she has nothing left to prove in the sport.
She won her 23rd and final Grand Slam at the Australian Open in 2017 while pregnant with Olympia. She made four more Grand Slam finals after Olympia was born.
Williams is also 41 and has had numerous health scares, including a pulmonary embolism, not to mention the wear and tear on her body from 27 years on tour as a professional.
It’s difficult for super competitive dominant athletes to turn that part of their brain off and do other things. The singular laser-intense focus is what made them great. It’s also difficult because no other arena gives them the same feeling and adulation as the one they’ve dominated and became famous in.
It’s a struggle.
But the GOATs who are most successful in retirement find other avenues to pour into and channel their fire.
Williams is a business mogul who sits on corporate boards, she’s a corporate spokesperson, runs companies and has a venture capital fund. Becoming a true titan of business is something she can dive into.
Of course she will have to find time in the day, now that she’ll have two little ones to look after. In that regard she’s just like millions of women across the world.
