Serena Williams, 39, gained her final main in 2017 at Melbourne Park earlier than taking a break from the game to offer beginning.
Serena Williams broke down and minimize brief her post-match information convention after her 6-3, 6-4 defeat to Naomi Osaka within the Australian Open semi-finals that ended her bid for a record-equalling twenty fourth Grand Slam.
Williams gained her final main title in 2017 at Melbourne Park earlier than taking a break from the game to offer beginning to daughter Alexis Olympia, and has misplaced 4 main finals since returning in 2018.
The 39-year-old, who’s one Grand Slam title wanting Margaret Courtroom’s document, walked off Rod Laver Enviornment to a standing ovation on Thursday, pausing for a second to place her hand on her coronary heart and wave to the group.
Japan’s Naomi Osaka (left) offers a hug to Serena Williams of the USA after their girls’s singles semi-final match on day 11 of the Australian Open tennis match in Melbourne on February 18, 2021 [William West/AFP]
When requested by reporters if her exit from the courtroom was a last farewell to Melbourne Park, she stated with a smile: “If I ever say farewell, I wouldn’t inform anybody.”
However the smile quickly light, and a query about whether or not her defeat to Osaka was only a “dangerous day on the workplace” noticed her take a sip of water earlier than choking up.
“I don’t know. I’m finished,” she stated, leaving the room in tears.
Serena crying 💔after the media retains asking her about retirement pic.twitter.com/htjHEL5yoG
— BlackCultureEntertainment🗣 (@4TheCulture____) February 18, 2021
Williams had appeared her sharpest in years on the match, however 24 unforced errors price her towards Osaka, who additionally beat her within the 2018 US Open last.
Seven-time Grand Slam champion Mats Wilander stated Williams’s tears have been resulting from her disappointment on the means she performed and never an indication that she was making her final look at Melbourne Park.
“No [it’s not the end for Serena]. I feel we see these tears as a result of I feel she was dissatisfied in the way in which she performed,” stated Wilander, a three-time winner at Melbourne Park.
“For her this can be a larger loss, as a result of she is shifting higher, she is taking part in higher and she or he continues to be not likely near Osaka and I really feel that’s the place the feelings begin. She’s most likely considering, ‘What do I have to do now?’”
Eight-time champion Novak Djokovic, who beat Russian qualifier Aslan Karatsev on Thursday to succeed in his ninth Australian Open last, additionally commented on Williams’s emotional exit.
“I can empathise with Serena and what she’s going via,” he stated. “She’s such an incredible champion that evokes each female and male athletes all over the world in what she has been doing, I imply, nonetheless is doing in her age, is extraordinary.”
