Serena Williams

Williams suffered a third-round loss to Ajla Tomljanovic at the US Open; 40-year-old is expected to retire from competitive tennis, having won 23 Grand Slam ...

Her last match — at the U.S. Open and probably of her career — was a gutsy display of the power and resilience that have kept fans cheering for nearly 30 ...

Tiger Woods called Serena Williams “literally the greatest” after she bowed out of professional tennis with a third-round defeat at the US Open. The...

Serena Williams' illustrious tennis career has come to an end after she lost to Ajla Tomljanovic 7-5 6-7 (4-7) 6-1 in the third round of the US Open.

Serena Williams bowed out of the US Open and professional tennis with a third-round defeat by Ajla Tomljanovic.

With her serve now engaged, the 40-year-old stormed into a 4-0 lead. She said: "I’m feeling really sorry just because I love Serena just as much as you guys do. And I wouldn’t be Serena if there wasn’t Venus, so thank you Venus. But Williams, who has played very little tennis in the last 18 months, tightened up at just the wrong moment, struggled to find her serve and Tomljanovic clinched the set with four games in a row. Thank you daddy, I know you’re watching. Addressing the crowd through tears, Williams said: "Thank you so much, you guys were amazing.

Former US first lady among many to pay tribute to tennis star after she is knocked out of US Open.

“She refused to hide her flair, or what was on her mind. She couldn’t stop winning. “.@serenawilliams you’re literally the greatest on and off the court,” he wrote on Twitter. The former US first lady led tributes to her friend and her “amazing career” saying she would go on to “transform lives” with her talents. “I’m proud of you, my friend – and I can’t wait to see the lives you continue to transform with your talents.” Michelle Obama praised Serena Williams as “one of the greatest athletes of all time” as the tennis superstar played what was likely to be her final professional match.

Analytics, scouting first-time opponents, additional coaching input, new footwork drills and treating doubles like practice — so far it's adding up to ...

Pure grit and scintillating play – Williams's curtain call against Ajla Tomljanović demonstrated how she changed all sport for ever.

She had a magical run, she played brilliantly at times, she reminded everyone of the qualities that have made her a legend. It turns out, not too surprisingly, that Williams has a decent nose for an investment: she has so far funded 16 “unicorns”, companies valued at more than $1bn. “She doesn’t want anything to do with a boy,” says Williams – and Serena, the youngest of five sisters, doesn’t want to deny her that. The first to pay homage to Williams was a shell-shocked Tomljanović, who said before the match that she planned to play in earplugs to drown out the partisan support. But on Friday night, it was also clear that she felt a small pang of regret: how much deeper could she have gone if she’d started practising a little earlier? “Surreal” was a spot-on description for the evening, which started for a UK audience at midnight and culminated after 3am. Williams won her first grand-slam title, aged 17, in a different century: the US Open in 1999. She thanked her dad Richard, and her mum Oracene, who was the only person in the stadium not losing their mind, and may even have been having a nap at times. Current players, from Naomi Osaka to Coco Gauff to Emma Raducanu, spoke powerfully about how she paved the way for them, and She prefers to say that she is in “transition”, although she’s well aware that’s a sensitive concept in 2022, so generally when she’s asked about what’s next for her, Williams settles on “evolution”. Williams often jokes that she is the “world’s worst” at goodbyes, but on court, after the match, she did a pretty terrific job. [Williams lost an exhilarating, excruciating third-round match](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/sep/02/serena-williams-ajla-tomljanovi-us-open-tennis-third-round-retirement) at the US Open to Australia’s Ajla Tomljanović.

Following is reaction to Serena Williams' defeat by Australia's Ajla Tomljanovic at the U.S. Open on Friday, likely to be the last match of the 23-times ...

Twenty-seven years on the professional tour, 23 grand slam singles titles and a plethora of records; Serena Williams is leaving tennis as one of the ...

Williams, who lost possibly her last match on Friday night, made herself felt beyond the game as arguably no player ever has.

When it was over, Venus hugged her downcast sister at the net and said, in her ear, “I love you.” Try forgetting that. I wasn’t there in 2001, when Serena, playing her older sister Venus, anxious and unable to settle in—as she often was against Venus—made batches of unforced errors and lost her second U.S. Even before I was born, it was what I was meant to do and what I was supposed to do and what was chosen for me.” The Times sent a reporter to an obscure tournament in Canada in October, 1995, to cover her first professional match—which she lost badly, to an eighteen-year-old American named Annie Miller. In the seventh game of that set, Serena crushed a return winner to break Andreescu’s serve; then she held her own serve; then she broke Andreescu’s serve again and held once more to even the set at 5–5. There was also, a year later, Serena’s [final](https://www.newyorker.com/sports/sporting-scene/in-her-us-open-victory-bianca-andreescu-shows-the-swagger-that-serena-williams-brought-to-womens-tennis) against Bianca Andreescu, in which she dropped the first set, and fell behind five games to one in the second. The last ball she hit was a forehand into the net, and it was likely the last ball she will ever hit on the women’s tour—she announced, in August, that she was “evolving away from tennis,” and the understanding was that the U.S. As dominant a player as she was—the most dominant the sport has seen—her struggles were also numerous, and absorbing, and, sometimes, spectacular enough to become indelible. She would go on to lose the set, 5–7, and the match, and her last real shot at a twenty-fourth major—but not before driving those on hand to cheer for her to raucous delirium. Serena has played in the main singles draw at the U.S. To be a fan of any athlete is to know the ending and to begin processing it before it arrives. For certain stretches, such as the first games of the second set, Serena struck aces and open-stance backhands and swinging volleys as if time—and giving birth to a daughter, five years ago—had taken nothing from her game. It was Daniel Kahneman, with the American psychologist Barbara Fredrickson, who recognized that, in what and how we remember, there tends to be a cognitive bias at work.

When the 23-time major champion says she's retiring, maybe it's time to believe her – and for her to believe herself.

It was a weight only redoubled by the two strikes against her in American society: being born a woman and being born black. Then a fourth, then a fifth as the match extended past the three-hour mark. Other than winning the whole tournament, it was the perfect way to go out: 15 minutes of pure fight. When Williams won her first of 23 grand slam titles at the 1999 US Open as a 17-year-old, her road to the trophy included five opponents who one day would end up in the Hall of Fame: Kim Clijsters, Conchita Martínez, Monica Seles, Lindsay Davenport and Martina Hingis. Even as she fielded a congratulatory phone call from President Clinton afterward, it was impossible to fully reckon the extent to which her triumph would shape the perception of female athletes in the new millennium. She will continue to define success on her own terms as she has for nearly three decades in the unsparing public eye as a working-class black woman from Compton who rewrote the record books of a sport predominantly owned, played and watched by affluent white people. [only the latest example of a great champion](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/mar/14/tom-bradys-nfl-return-is-both-understandable-and-potentially-foolish) finding it hard to close the book on the glory days. [Serena Williams](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/serena-williams) Invitational over the course of five days that boasted record attendances and US television ratings – has been so fulfilling. Even in the cathartic aftermath of [Friday night’s third-round defeat](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/sep/02/serena-williams-ajla-tomljanovi-us-open-tennis-third-round-retirement) to Ajla Tomljanović, the sudden deluge of tears seemed to express a finality that she either could not or would not articulate in words. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to do that.” With a marriage to a supportive partner who shares her values, a daughter who just turned five and a venture capital firm that has raised more than $100m, there will be no crisis over her sense of purpose. But these extended farewells almost always end in a messy defeat: as a last act, Friday night’s epic in front of roaring crowd on Arthur Ashe was about as good as it gets.

There's no doubt Serena Williams is one of the greatest players tennis has ever seen. Whether she is the GOAT — greatest of all time — depends on how you ...

Her legacy is tied up in intangible concepts like race, gender and overall impact both in and out of the sport. But also because the amount of money poured into tennis, and most sports, these days far outstrips those of yesteryear. She only made around $300,000 from playing tennis, but $45 million off the court. And most hang around, picking up pay cheques in Acapulco and Monte Carlo long after their time as a competitive force is over. See you at the next GOAT debate. But what if we weight doubles titles as half a singles title? She is consistently the highest-earning female athlete in the world and was the only woman on Forbes's list of the wealthiest athletes of the decade from 2010-2019, worth an estimated $US215 million ($310 million) at the time. She's no match for the great Aussie champ. So, let's start by restricting it solely to titles after that point. In fact, according to the official numbers from the men's and women's tours, the 73-time title winner is behind only the 'Big Three' of Roger Federer (103 titles), Rafael Nadal (92) and Novak Djokovic (88) in terms of prize money won. As you can see, no-one can match Williams with that 18-year winning window from the 1999 US Open to the Australian Open in 2017, bearing in mind Nadal (2005-2022) and Djokovic (2008-2022) are still regularly winning slams. But three of Williams's Olympic titles were won in the doubles alongside sister Venus, and if we're going to include that for the gold medals, then surely we have to do it for the majors too.

The 23-time Grand Slam winner revealed how she plans to spend her time after Friday's loss.

When the COVID-19 pandemic suspended play on the WTA Tour, Williams had the chance to visualize what her life might resemble without the sport she has loved since childhood. Moments after one of the most dramatic matches of her career, Williams shared plans of what she looked forward to doing most after Friday’s loss. Open, the event where she won her first Grand Slam title in 1999 at age 17. Williams delivered a tenacious performance in the longest of her three matches in the 2022 U.S. But in her time away, Williams got an opportunity to envision life without having to go to the gym. [shared her “evolution” from the sport on Aug.

On Friday night, tennis champion Serena Williams played and lost what will likely be the last match of her career against Australia's Ajla Tomljanović.

I think it means so much to me in my life, and I've had so many amazing moments, that I don't see a future without it.” But I feel like it's provided me with so many opportunities. “It's been the most incredible ride and journey I've ever been on, I mean, in my life. Williams announced her planned retirement from tennis last month, and it was expected that her send off at the US Open would be highly attended. Oh, my God...I thank everyone that's here, that's been on my side so many years, decades. Williams lost the final game she played at Arthur Ashe Stadium to Australia's Ajla Tomljanović.

Sure there is a golf tournament to think about – balls to hit, putts to make, and strategy to map out as players entered the weekend at the Dana Open ...

“Serena has been one of my greatest inspirations and obviously one of the greatest tennis players ever to touch a racquet. “To me she's probably like the greatest athlete in history on the women's side, and probably on the men's. “It’s sad to see her retire and see her era on the court come to an end. Even when I see some of the LPGA moms, I'm like, wow, it's hard enough doing one thing, but to juggle, not two, it's multiple things, it's pretty crazy. “I did see a quote that she did: I'm going to go from good mom to great mom. There are things that my baby is going to experience that other babies are never going to experience. I feel special to have been alive to witness this.” She spent so much time on the court, but knowing that it was her last time, it’s obviously really special to see. “I thought that was such a perfect word. More than most, they know what Serena means to women’s sports as a whole. In what is almost certainly her last grand slam match, Serena Williams battled gallantly through three sets at the U.S. Many LPGA Tour players did just that, walking away from Highland Meadows Golf Club on Friday in time to catch a little tennis on television.

In case you missed it: The defending women's champion, Emma Raducanu, is out, and the defending men's champion, Daniil Medvedev, is set for a finals-worthy ...

The U.S. Medvedev has had an unsettled season, full of forced breaks (hernia surgery and the Wimbledon ban) and defeats, even on his preferred hardcourts. She has a tough assignment on Sunday, however, as she tries to stop the resurgent Caroline Garcia of France. “Obviously it’s not in the amount as Serena, but in my own little world, I feel like brought everything to it, and my narrative was done.” “They have two of the best serves in the world and two of the best returns in the world, and in doubles you only have to cover half the court. Pegula, the No. She turned pro at 17 and soon reached the third round of all four majors, peaking at No. She came back from a major knee injury early in her career and became a hard-running baseliner. Cornet is playing the best tennis of her career at 32 and upset No. 24 in the world in 2012. 1 Novak Djokovic, who then held all four major singles titles, in the third round in 2016. Emma Raducanu, an 18-year-old Briton born in Canada with roots in China and Romania, defeated Fernandez in that final, becoming the first qualifier in the long history of the game to win a Grand Slam singles title.

Lewis Hamilton has paid tribute to Serena Williams, saying: She has such fierceness, power, and strength in both body and mind. To be so bold, Black, ...

He continued: "Still today you remind me to never give up, you remind me what we stand for and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. To be so bold, Black, brave and, above all, a kind and caring human being is beautiful. To be so bold, Black, brave and, above all, a kind and caring human being is beautiful" "I remember watching her and Venus at their first games with my dad on TV. She came through like a wrecking ball and has been so spectacular to witness. She has such fierceness, power, and strength in both body and mind.

The Formula One star paid homage to the tennis legend two days after her third-round loss at the U.S. Open.

On Sunday, prior to competing in the Dutch Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton added to the still-growing number of tributes with a [heartfelt Instagram post](https://www.instagram.com/p/CiFR0_PMNXw/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link) paying homage to the GOAT for her incredible 27-year run. The 37-year-old star has recently opened up about the hardships of his She came through like a wrecking ball and has been so spectacular to witness. To be so bold, Black, brave and, above all, a kind and caring human being is beautiful.” Open on Friday, leaving behind a legacy that transcended the sport and made her an icon around the world. “Taking a moment before the race today to show my appreciation and gratitude to the greatest of all time, @serenawilliams,” Hamilton wrote.

Lewis Hamilton has paid tribute to Serena Williams by calling the tennis star "the greatest of all time" and thanked her and sister Venus for giving him ...

"Still today you remind me to never give up, you remind me what we stand for and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. "I remember watching her and Venus at their first games with my dad on TV. She came through like a wrecking ball and has been so spectacular to witness.