Serena Williams says ‘countdown has begun’ on tennis career

Serena Williams, a 23-time Grand Slam champion, revealed Tuesday that she is retiring from tennis so that she can focus on having another child and her business activities, announcing the end of a career that transcended the sport.

Vogue magazine published an essay on Williams on Tuesday, and she also posted a message on Instagram, which is preferred by celebrities, a group she most definitely falls into, about her last match, which might take place at the U.S. Open, which begins on August 29 in New York.

“There comes a time in life when we have to decide to move in a different direction. That time is always hard when you love something so much. My goodness do I enjoy tennis. But now, the countdown has begun,” Williams, who turns 41 next month, wrote on Instagram. “I have to focus on being a mom, my spiritual goals and finally discovering a different, but just (as) exciting Serena. I’m gonna relish these next few weeks.”

Williams, one of the greatest and most accomplished athletes in the history of her — or any other — sport, wrote in the essay that 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.”

“I feel a great deal of pain. It’s the hardest thing that I could ever imagine. I hate it. I hate that I have to be at this crossroads,” she wrote. “I keep saying to myself, I wish it could be easy for me, but it’s not. I’m torn: I don’t want it to be over, but at the same time I’m ready for what’s next.”