Serena Williams ‘not very happy’ with final match as tennis icon has retirement ‘pain’ | Tennis | Sport

Serena Williams admitted it was “painful” to think about the last game of her career as she discussed her retirement five months later. The 23-time Grand Slam champion hung up her racket at the US Open last year, losing in the third round to Ajla Tomljanovic and has now admitted she was ‘not happy at all’ the day after her retirement .

Williams ended her 27-year career at her home Grand Slam last September, announcing she would be “getting away from tennis” in a tryout for Vogue ahead of the US Open. Her retirement was postponed for a few days as she managed to win her first two matches – including a win over second seed Anett Kontaveit – before eventually losing to Tomljanovic.

But the former world No. 1 has now admitted she was unhappy after retiring because of the match result, expecting a better performance despite playing in her fourth tournament in a year after ending being injured at Wimbledon in 2021. “I actually wasn’t very happy at all, just because of the result,” the 41-year-old told Gayle King in a new CBS Morning interview.

While Williams used the tournament as a farewell, she said her intention was actually to win. “I was there to keep going and keep winning, and it was more or less, I can’t believe I let that game go by more than anything,” she added.

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