Serena Williams dazzles As Vogue Magazine’s September Cover Star Alongside her Daughter Olympia

“I have never liked the word retirement,” says Williams, seen above with her daughter, Olympia. “It doesn’t feel like a modern word to me.” Serena poses in a Balenciaga gown, bulgari High Jewelry earring. Photographed by Luis Alberto Rodriguez for Vogue‘s September 2022 Issue.

In the candid interview with Vogue Magazine Serena opens up about her journey to having a second child and her plans of retiring from tennis.

“There comes a time in life when we have to decide to move in a different direction,” Serena writes. “That time is always hard when you love something so much. My goodness do I enjoy tennis. But now, the countdown has begun. I have to focus on being a mom, my spiritual goals and finally discovering a different, but just exciting Serena. I’m gonna relish these next few weeks. “

Serena, who turns 41 in September, has been gradually moving away from tennis for a few years now. After becoming a mother in 2017, she mostly saved herself for the Grand Slams. This year, she didn’t play at all until Wimbledon, and now it appears all but certain that the US Open will be the final tournament of her quarter-century career.

But it has been years since Serena was simply an athlete. She’s a symbol—of Black excellence, modern motherhood, female success without compromise, survival. She’s one of a group of African-American women, along with Beyoncé, Rihanna and Oprah, who are at the center of American culture, not just sporting culture.

Still, Serena’s good-bye announcement was also a reminder of how much she continues to love playing her game, and how hard it is for her to let it go.

“There is no happiness in this topic for me,” she writes. “I know it’s not the usual thing to say, but I feel a great deal of pain. It’s the hardest thing that I could ever imagine. I hate it. I hate that I have to be at this crossroads.

“It’s like a taboo topic…It comes up, I get an uncomfortable lump in my throat, and I start to cry.”

“I’d like to think that thanks to me, women athletes can be themselves. They can play with aggression and pump their fists. They can wear what they want and say what they want and kick butt and be proud of it all”

Read the full interview Here

Photographer @luisalbertorodriguezstudio 

Stylist @gabriellak_j 

Hair @iam_thechong 

Makeup @raisaflowers 

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Set @andrea_stanley_

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