Serena Williams says she has not retired from tennis and that the chances of her returning are “very high” after she previously indicated that she would step away from the sport.
Williams, 41, said she was “evolving away from tennis” in an essay in August and, while she did not confirm the US Open as her farewell event, she was given lavish tributes before each match in New York and waved an emotional goodbye after losing in the third round to Ajla Tomljanovic.
“I am not retired,” Williams said at a conference in San Francisco while promoting her investment company, Serena Ventures.
“The chances (of a return) are very high. You can come to my house, I have a court.”
The 23-time Grand Slam champion, who took the tennis world by storm as a teenager and is considered by many the greatest of all time, said not preparing for a tournament after the US Open did not feel natural to her.
“I still haven’t really thought about (retirement),” Williams 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.”
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Williams has been careful not to say the R-word, instead announcing she was “evolving” away from tennis.
“I have never liked the word retirement. It doesn’t feel like a modern word to me,” Williams wrote in Vogue in August.
“I’ve been thinking of this as a transition, but I want to be sensitive about how I use that word, which means something very specific and important to a community of people.
“Maybe the best word to describe what I’m up to is evolution. I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me.”
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