Serena Williams retirement: The 23-time Grand Slam winner transformed tennis and transcended all of sport

There are few people in this world who are recognisable only by their first names. Fewer still who are women in sport. Serena is one of those truly exceptional humans.

The fact that she narrows that niche further still, as a woman of colour, maybe shouldn’t matter, but it does. Because Serena Williams has changed what it means to be a sportswoman, to be a successful Black woman, to be a mother, to be so much more than the sum of all of her achievements. As she walks away from the professional tennis court for the final time in her playing career, Serena brings with her the record for Grand Slam titles of any player in the Open era.

Tennis lovers will know and celebrate the ways in which she has changed the sport, of course. Her serve has transformed the game. The physical strength and technical prowess she has brought to women’s tennis has taken it to a new level and demanded her rivals to compete on a similar level if they were to be any match.

Much more than the shape of the game, however, she and her sister Venus have helped change the face of tennis, literally. At the US Open, in particular, more Black fans and people of colour see it as a sport for everyone.

Then there’s the financial landscape of women’s sport in general. Serena has redefined earning expectations for top female athletes thanks to her $94 million career winnings. It is true that she, and now Osaka, are the exceptions in a still shamefully male dominated earning field, but she shows, at least, what is possible. Women’s sport and female athletes can, and do, sell.

All of the above, however, matters to sports fans, and those hoping to join and earn with the ranks of the elite.

For me, Serena’s greatest achievements are in transcending her sport, in transcending all of sport, because only then do athletes really make a difference. Only then do they prove to all of us why sport matters, and the many ways in which it does.

I’ve mentioned already the Vogue cover. It is no coincidence that Serena announced her retirement – evolution, or whatever she has earned the right to call the next part of her career – in the most esteemed fashion bible in the world. She has changed the aesthetics of female beauty. No less. Women have been tyrannised since the dawn of time with the small-boned, small-framed image of perfection, as initiated through the male gaze and perpetuated by high fashion. Here is a powerful and graceful Titaness of a beauty, and she is someone who empowers through her inspiration. There is nothing effortless about Serena Williams’ stature, it has visibly required dedicated, literal blood sweat and tears. In an expectant era of social media influencer success, here is someone who has clearly worked hard for everything she has achieved. That’s the kind of example I want to show my daughter. And son, too, for that matter.

Her physical and technical prowess would impress little if it weren’t for the mental resilience she has had to build to make it to the top, and get back there time and again. The grief of losing her sister, depression, both before and after motherhood, plummeting rankings and all the pressure that comes with being the player in the world everyone wants to beat; there is very little it seems Serena hasn’t had to deal with, and overcome.

And it is for all of these reasons that I will continue to celebrate one of the greatest athletes I have had the privilege of witnessing in my lifetime. Her playing career may be at an end, but the woman who has transcended her sport, who has lionised motherhood, who has given all of sport a role model we can be proud of, will have to channel all that energy, drive and magnificence somewhere.

I cannot wait to see where it takes her next.

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