Serena Williams, the 23-time grand slam singles champion considered by many to be the greatest of all time, played what likely is the final professional tennis match of her career on Friday night at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Since losing her professional debut in September 1995, Serena Williams has become the most dominant force in women’s tennis in the last 30 years.
Together with her older sister Venus, the Williams sisters transformed the sport, making a regular habit of winning grand slams in both singles and doubles tennis.
Serena has won at least 73 career singles titles, 23 doubles titles and two mixed doubles titles, which includes 39 grand slam titles: 23 singles titles, 14 doubles titles and two mixed doubles titles.
She is one singles grand slam title behind the all-time record held by Australian Margaret Court.
When asked by CNN’s Christiane Amanpour earlier this year if she still wanted to beat Court’s record, she replied: “I should have had it, really, I should — I’ve had many opportunities to have it. But I’m not giving up, to answer your question.”
She addressed this later in Vogue, saying:
“I know there’s a fan fantasy that I might have tied Margaret that day in London, then maybe beat her record in New York, and then at the trophy ceremony say, ‘See ya!’ I get that. It’s a good fantasy. But I’m not looking for some ceremonial, final on-court moment. I’m terrible at goodbyes, the world’s worst.”
The four-time Olympic gold medalist has won over $94.5 million in career prize money, more than any other female athlete.
Away from the court, Williams announced her engagement to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian in 2016, and gave birth to their daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., in 2017.
Read more about her career and remarks on evolving from tennis here.
CNN’s Jill Martin contributed reporting to this post.
