Tennis icon Serena Williams is one of the most successful tennis players of all time, winning six US Open titles in a storied career.
Her first triumph at Flushing Meadows came in 1999 – her maiden grand slam victory.
She picked up more titles at the tournament in 2002 and 2008 before winning three consecutive US Opens from 2012 to 2014.
Now 42, Williams has moved away from playing. In 2022, she said that she was “evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me” such as her young daughter who was born in 2017.
Williams said she was “evolving away from tennis” in an article in magazine in August 2022, leading fans to assume that her subsequent appearance at the US Open would serve as her retirement tournament.
However, she also said that she had “never liked the word retirement” – and at a press conference two months later, she called the chances of her returning to action “very high”.
“I am not retired,” said Williams, adding that not playing for a competition “felt really weird”. “You can come to my house; I have a court.”