Tennis superstar Serena Williams is reportedly preparing for retirement. Her last match was Friday at the U.S. Open where she lost to Amira Tomljanovic who received second place. Many celebrities attended her last match, including Bella Hadid, Anna Wintour and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Williams recently announced her retirement in the September issue of Vogue. She stated in the interview, “I have never liked the word retirement. It doesn’t feel like a modern word to me….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.” Her last match was the most watched match in ESPN’s 43- year history. 

As a 40-year-old American tennis player originally from Michigan, Williams is known for revolutionizing women’s tennis with her powerful style of play, and winning 23 Grand Slam singles titles, more than any woman or man in the ‘Open Era’. Her father, Richard Williams, taught Serena and her sister Venus, how to play tennis. He was known as a strict coach as the sisters spent hours playing each day. Serena started playing professionally in 1995. Many predicted her sister would be the first to win a Grand Slam. But in 1999, Serena was the first to win. The two have teamed up for 14 Grand Slam doubles titles. Serena has won many big titles such as the French Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S Open. In 2016, she announced she was pregnant and gave birth in September 2017. When asked about her retirement she said, “…evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me.”