Stars react to Serena Williams’ retirement: Kim Kardashian and Gabrielle Union lead tributes

Serena Williams shocked the world as she announced that she is eventually stepping away from tennis without using the word ‘retirement’ in a Vogue cover story.

And Kim Kardashian and Gabrielle Union led the stars reacting to the groundbreaking news.

The 41-year-old SKIMS founder and 49-year-old actress took to Instagram to lead celebrity tributes to the 40-year-old 23-time Grand Slam singles champion.

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Both stars made similar statements as they shared goat imagery which is a reference to the highly-popular phrase of the ‘greatest of all time.’

Kim commented on Serena’s post on the picture and video sharing social network with goat and flowers emojis. 

Gabrielle shared Serena’s post on her Instagram story with a photo of a goat’s face and adding: ‘Can’t wait to see what’s next friend.’

The Serena news sent shockwaves through the sporting world on Monday.

‘I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me,’ the legendary athlete has announced in the latest issue of Vogue. 

‘It’s the hardest thing that I could ever imagine. I don’t want it to be over, but at the same time I’m ready for what’s next.’

Williams is not quitting immediately. For starters, she’s currently playing in a tournament in Toronto, and actually just won her first match in 430 days on Monday after battling health issues for much of the past few seasons. 

And as she revealed in her piece, Williams is still hopeful she can play at the US Open in New York later this month. She’s also committed to playing at next week’s Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati. 

‘Unfortunately I wasn’t ready to win Wimbledon this year,’ she wrote. ‘And I don’t know if I will be ready to win New York. But I’m going to try. And the lead-up tournaments will be fun.’

And Williams isn’t looking for the kind of ‘farewell’ tour that many male athletes have enjoyed before their imminent retirements. 

Instead, the younger half of the famed Williams Sisters thanked fans in her piece and admitted that she’s going to miss the game.

‘But I’m not looking for some ceremonial, final on-court moment,’ she continued. ‘I’m terrible at goodbyes, the world’s worst. But please know that I am more grateful for you than I can ever express in words. You have carried me to so many wins and so many trophies. I’m going to miss that version of me, that girl who played tennis. And I’m going to miss you.’

Williams not only wants to spend more time with her husband, Alexis, and their five-year-old, Olympia, but the 23-time Grand Slam singles winner revealed that the couple is trying to have another child in the near future. 

‘In the last year, Alexis and I have been trying to have another child, and we recently got some information from my doctor that put my mind at ease and made me feel that whenever we’re ready, we can add to our family,’ Williams wrote. ‘I definitely don’t want to be pregnant again as an athlete. I need to be two feet into tennis or two feet out.’

The 40-year-old Williams has not won a Grand Slam since the 2017 Australian Open, and has been chasing her 24th major singles championship  to draw her even with Margaret Court on the all-time leaderboard. 

Williams doesn’t deny that the record is meaningful, but she took the time to put it in perspective for Vogue. 

‘There are people who say I’m not the GOAT because I didn’t pass Margaret Court’s record of 24 grand slam titles, which she achieved before the ”open era” that began in 1968,’ she wrote. ‘I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want that record. Obviously I do. But day to day, I’m really not thinking about her. If I’m in a grand slam final, then yes, I am thinking about that record. Maybe I thought about it too much, and that didn’t help. 

‘The way I see it, I should have had 30-plus grand slams,’ she continued. ‘I had my chances after coming back from giving birth. I went from a C-section to a second pulmonary embolism to a grand slam final. I played while breastfeeding. I played through postpartum depression. But I didn’t get there. Shoulda, woulda, coulda. I didn’t show up the way I should have or could have. But I showed up 23 times, and that’s fine. Actually it’s extraordinary. But these days, if I have to choose between building my tennis résumé and building my family, I choose the latter.’

The announcement comes, strangely enough, after her first win in 430 days.

‘I’m just happy to get a win,’ Williams said Monday after beating Nuria Parrizas-Diaz 6-3, 6-4 at the women’s National Bank Open in Toronto. ‘It’s been a very long time, I forgot what that felt like.’

It’s just the second tournament of the season for the 40-year-old Williams, who returned to competition at Wimbledon just over a month ago. The 23-time Grand Slam champion fell in the first round to Harmony Tan in three sets at the All England Club.

Before then, she last competed at the 2021 Wimbledon tournament, where she retired in the middle of her first match due to a torn hamstring suffered after slipping on the grass surface.

Williams, who will turn 41 at the end of September, will next face either 12th-ranked Belinda Bencic or Tereza Martincova.

Williams has won this tournament three times and reached the final in her last appearance at the hardcourt event in 2019, losing to Bianca Andreescu when she was forced to stop because of injury.

But Williams has played little since and knows she needs time on the court.

‘I feel good, I felt like I competed well today. I think that’s what I needed to do, is just compete,’ she said. ‘Mentally, I’m getting there. I’m not where I normally am (or) where I want to be. Any match I play, whether I win or lose, helps me.

‘I haven’t played a lot in the last year, (even) two years. I think that helps me physically. I feel much better in practice, it’s just getting that to the court. Literally, I’m the kind of person (where) it takes one or two things and then it clicks.’

Williams started out strong, taking the first two games with relative ease.

Parrizas-Diaz tied it 2-2, but despite Williams’ struggles at certain points, the 31-year-old Spaniard couldn’t find enough of a consistent flow to get ahead. Williams found her rhythm, mixing solid touch with her signature power and putting shot after shot out of Parrizas-Diaz’s reach.

Williams’ effort had the fans on their feet roaring and some even bowing.

Williams won the final three games to take the first set, then surged ahead in the second after the 57th-ranked Parrizas-Diaz took a 4-3 lead. She endured a nine-deuce game to hold serve and even the set, then broke in the next game before serving out the victory.

While Williams says the end of her remarkable career is in sight, she’s enjoying her time and staying in the moment.

‘I’m getting closer to the light. Lately, that’s been it, I can’t wait to get to that light,’ she said, adding the light represents ‘freedom.’

‘I love playing though, it’s amazing,’ she added. ‘I can’t do this forever, so sometimes you just want to try your best to enjoy the moments and do the best that you can.’

Serena Williams’ box-office appeal always outweighed her diva-like tendencies… she is IRREPLACEABLE

By Mike Dickson, Daily Mail Tennis Correspondent

It was the morning after Serena Williams’ night before, and various theories were doing the rounds within the confines at Wimbledon earlier this year.

One was that it had been a good thing she did not storm to a commanding victory in the first round against Harmony Tan of France.

The idea goes that it would not have reflected well on the women’s tour if a 40-year-old had returned from a year’s absence, with seemingly limited physical preparation, and won as if she had never been away. 

That was not meant to be a slight on the seven-time champion, for whom it has now been confirmed to be a farewell to Wimbledon’s Centre Court.

For what she showed that evening — and there will be the TV ratings to back it up — is that she will be irreplaceable now she has announced her retirement.

Williams heads for retirement at a time when the women’s top 10 has never been more anonymous. The strength in depth on the WTA circuit may be deeper than ever but it is short of headline acts.

The world No. 2 is Anett Kontaveit, for example. She was beaten in straight sets at Wimbledon by world No. 97 Jule Niemeier of Germany.

Admirable pro though Kontaveit undoubtedly is, the 26-year-old has never been past the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam and could hardly be described as a household name outside her native Estonia.

She would have been unlikely to reverse the trend is of seeing smaller crowds than the last pre-pandemic year of 2019.

There may be multiple reasons for this: looming recession, the weather, user-unfriendly ticket systems and Covid worries, to list a few. Another was the absence of Roger Federer, because you can never have too many authentic superstars with pulling power.

Serena is one of those rarefied few, and her retirement is a blow to a sport already missing some of the next bracket as Daniil Medvedev and Novak Djokovic miss big tournaments for non-sporting reasons.

Her box-office appeal has always outweighed her somewhat diva-like tendencies, which can be exasperating to those who work in the game.

Playing doubles in recently, her partner Ons Jabeur was said to be agasp at the way Serena could dictate things like the length and timing of press conferences.

Yet, for all the hassle and the hubris, any event would love to have her because she is a unique source of drama and intrigue. She will be a huge miss for tennis.