‘Time for Me to Give My Life to Something Else’
Life after tennis: Serena Williams on business, family and her farm
CBS Matinees
Serena Williams is adjusting to life after tennis.
In an interview with Gayle King on CBS Mornings on Wednesday, Williams, 41, opened up about how she felt after her last match, her hopes of giving her daughter, Olympia, a sibling and whether or not tennis is in her future. .
The 23-time Grand Slam champion said she was “not very happy” the day after her US Open third round defeat in September. “It was more or less like, ‘I can’t believe I let this game go,’ more than anything,” she told King.
She had said she would “walk away from tennis” after the tournament in a first-person essay for Vogue, but has since said she was “not retired” and her chances of a comeback were ” very high”.
When King asked if the door was still open, Williams replied with a definite “no.”
“I literally gave my whole life to tennis, and it’s time for me to give my life to something else,” she said.
While her dad pushes her to get back on the court – “My dad is like, ‘Serena, you should play like, two more Grand Slams’ and I’m like, ‘Dad, stop it'” – it doesn’t seem to work that might happen soon.
“I feel relieved when I look at the pitch,” she said as she and King sat pitchside on her husband Alexis Ohanian’s farm property in South Florida. “I’m so happy that I don’t have to train for two hours a day.”
She said it was harder when she was looking at “old photos” and thinking, “Oh, I miss that.”
Although she has a lot more free time now, Williams said she finds it quite difficult to enjoy downtime after so many years of a rigid schedule. “It’s so hard for me to relax,” she told King with a laugh. “I don’t know how to relax. I have to fit it into my schedule.”
Life after tennis: Serena Williams on business, family and her farm
CBS Matinees
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Now Williams is focusing on raising her daughter, Olympia, 5, who she told the PEOPLE Everyday Podcast is pretty happy with her mother’s new lifestyle.
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“She wants to make sure that I’m aware that I should have time off and that I need to spend more time with her,” Williams told host Janine Rubenstein in December.
Serena Williams, Alexis Olympia
Serena Williams/Instagram
The little one also made it clear to Williams that she wanted to be a big sister, as she noticed that many other kids at school had siblings. Williams tells her she’s “working on it.”
Having another child also contributed to Williams’ decision to step away from tennis. King shared that she said if she were a man, “in the health she was in, she would probably still play tennis because she loves it so much, but family is also a top priority.”
Alexis Ohanian (L) and Serena Williams
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty
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In addition to focusing on expanding her family and Ohanian, Williams also channels her energy into her venture capital film, Serena Ventures. Now that she’s no longer winning on the pitch, she said “for me, winning is just about picking the best deals to invest in.”
The company focuses on financing businesses from diverse backgrounds.
“We need people like me, we need women who write the checks, because I’m really a big fan of look-alikes.”