Serena Williams has bowed out of her final US Open tournament after she shocked the world by announcing her retirement from the sport in a powerful Vogue cover shoot in August. Williams described her intention to finish her playing career as an “evolution” away from tennis. “I have never liked the word retirement,” she wrote in a column. “Maybe the best word to describe what I’m up to is evolution. I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me.”

Since her tennis debut in 1995, Williams has won 23-time grand slam singles, four Olympic gold medals and is considered one of the greatest athletes of all time.

In light of her incredible career, Stylist reflects on some of the icon’s most powerful moments, epic responses and sexist shutdowns, on and off the court. 

In 2017, former Wimbledon champion John McEnroe enraged leagues of tennis fans after he suggested that while Williams is the greatest female tennis player ever: “If she played the men’s circuit she’d be like 700 in the world.”

As the retired player came under fire for his sexist comments, Williams fired back in an epically powerful Twitter response. “Dear John, I adore and respect you but please please keep me out of your statements that are not factually based,” Williams tweeted. “I’ve never played anyone ranked ‘there’ nor do I have time. Respect me and my privacy as I’m trying to have a baby. Good day sir.”

A masterclass in taking on critics, indeed.

In April 2017, Williams announced that she and her husband, Alexis Ohanian, were expecting their first child together. Fans quickly did the maths, and worked out Williams would have been in the early stages of pregnancy when she won her record-breaking 23rd grand slam title at the Australian Open without dropping a single set in January.

Repeat after us: Greatest. Of. All. Time.

She may be best known for winning, but Williams has suffered some notable losses throughout her career, including in 2018 in the US Open final to 20th-ranked Naomi Osaka. With a match filled with controversy and shocking results, the crowd’s reaction was less than positive.

However, gracious even in defeat, Williams told them: “Let’s give everyone the credit where credit’s due and let’s not boo anymore. We’re going to get through this and let’s be positive. So congratulations, Naomi. No more booing.”

2018 was a huge year for Williams. Returning from giving birth to her daughter, Alexis Olympia, she went on to win the grand slam at the French Open. However, her achievement was later overshadowed by her outfit: a black full-length Nike catsuit.

Despite saying the garment made her feel like “a warrior”, as well as helping her cope with the blood clots that threatened her life during her pregnancy, the French Tennis Federation president, Bernard Giudicelli, said it had “gone too far”. “Serena’s outfit this year, for example, would no longer be accepted. You have to respect the game and the place,” he explained to Tennis Magazine.

Williams respectfully downplayed the comments, but the incident didn’t stop her from sporting some incredible fits on the court in later years.

If there’s one thing you can count on Williams for, it’s a perfectly-timed, mic-drop response to those who have tried to shame her appearance. Throughout her career, from the public as well as fellow athletes, Williams has faced discrimination, with her physique called “too strong”, “manly” and “unfeminine”.

Despite constant criticism, she has refused to let racist and sexist perceptions impact her, telling Harper’s Bazaar UK in 2018: “I’ll never be a size 4! Why would I want to do that, and be that? This is me, and this is my weapon and machine. I can show Olympia that I struggled, but now I’m happy with who I am and what I am and what I look like. Olympia was born and she had my arms, and instead of being sad and fearful about what people would say about her, I was just so happy.”

When Williams lost to Simona Halep in the 2019 Wimbledon final, she found herself under fire from critics – including tennis legend Billie Jean King – who suggested the 23-time Grand Slam champion should take a break from activism to give more of her attention to tennis. However, she was quick to shut down that idea. “The day I stop fighting for equality and for people that look like you and me will be the day I’m in my grave,” she later said in her post-match interview. 

Williams has always been vocal in the gender pay gap fight in tennis and brining attention to the difficulties Black women face in the workplace, using her own experiences on the court as an example. “The cycles of poverty, discrimination, and sexism are much, much harder to break than the record for Grand Slam titles,” she wrote in an essay for Fortunate Magazine in 2017.

Images: Getty