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Serena Williams prepares to end tennis career

Serena Williams isn’t calling it a retirement, but in an essay in Vogue, she says she is making a transition to focus on expanding her family and business interests.

“I have never liked the word retirement. … I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me,” she wrote.

“Believe me, I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family. I don’t think it’s fair. If I were a guy, I wouldn’t be writing this because I’d be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labor of expanding our family,” the essay said.

Williams said that at 41, with a 5-year-old daughter who wants to be a big sister: “I’ve been reluctant to admit that I have to move on from playing tennis. It’s like a taboo topic. It comes up, and I start to cry. I think the only person I’ve really gone there with is my therapist.”

Williams said she will retire after the U.S. Open, which will run from late August into September.

Roger Federer, a genius who made tennis look effortless

We are living through a period where the expected has surprised. In life, there is always an ending. Always. We know this. We anticipate this. We try to prepare for this. But when the passing of time forces a chapter to inevitably close, the reality of it all still stuns like a thunderbolt. Roger Federer wasn't going to play tennis forever. Aged 41 and having endured one injury after another in recent years, the sand was rapidly falling to the bottom of the hourglass. Even great champions retire.
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