Serena Williams Says She's "Not Retired" From Tennis After All
The tennis pro admits not preparing for a match after her US Open farewell felt unnatural.
Serena Williams does not consider herself retired from tennis just yet, it seems.
The star, who previously said her final match would be at this year's US Open last month, has now said that she may make a return.
"I am not retired," Williams said at a conference in San Francisco while promoting her investment company, Serena Ventures, per Reuters. She added that the chances of a return to the court "are very high."
"You can come to my house, I have a court," she then joked.
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Williams, 41, previously announced she would be stepping away from tennis in an essay she wrote this August, explaining that though she has loved being at the top of the tennis world for most of her life, she wants to focus on growing and spending more time her family.
When she was defeated by Ajla Tomljanović at the US Open on September 2, Williams gave an emotional goodbye to the crowd, as farewell tributes to her played in the stadium, but she never did confirm it was her last match ever, leading fans to speculate she could pull a Tom Brady and un-retire.
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Williams said at the conference that not preparing for a tournament after the US Open match did not feel natural to her. "I still haven't really thought about (retirement)," she said. "But I did wake up the other day and go on the court and (considered) for the first time in my life that I'm not playing for a competition, and it felt really weird. It was like the first day of the rest of my life and I'm enjoying it, but I'm still trying to find that balance."
This article originally appeared on Harper's BAZAAR US.
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