42-Year-Old Venus Williams Processed Intense Emotions During Serena Williams’ Retirement Match – ‘Don’t Know What I Would Have…’

Published 04/06/2023, 1:21 PM EDT

2022 saw multiple tennis greats bid goodbye to the court. Serena Williams was one of them. Australian Ajla Tomljanovic got the better of the American tennis legend in a third-round US Open encounter. It proved to be Serena’s final appearance in a competitive professional tennis match.

After the match came to its conclusion, it was hard for Serena to control her emotions. Understandably, she broke down. In a recent heart-to-heart interview with Nelson Boyce, Venus Williams looked back on her sister’s final competitive appearance as a professional tennis player.

Serena Williams defeat was a ‘shared loss’, says Venus

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Venus admitted that “it was hard” to accept her sister’s loss. She also expressed that she “wanted to leave right away as it was like a shared loss”. However, despite the thought of leaving, Venus, along with the rest of the Williams family, stayed behind to cheer Serena on as she said her goodbyes to professional tennis.

According to Venus, a tennis player’s mentality differs across the pre-match and post-match stages. “Before the match obviously you know at any time you can lose. No win is guaranteed.”

During her emotional post-match interview, Serena thanked her parents. She also went on to thank her sister. Venus placed herself in Serena’s shoes and said, “I don’t know what I would have said.” Reflecting on it during the interview, Venus said, “It was just the best moment.”

42-Year-Old Venus Williams Taunts Sister Serena With Her Graceful Moves on the Tennis Court – ‘Where Were You?’

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How did Serena’s career end in defeat?

Very few tennis enthusiasts would have expected the mighty Serena Williams to be ousted by Ajla Tomljanovic. However, that’s exactly how things turned out. The 23-times women’s single majors winner fell to a 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-1 loss at the hands of Ajla Tomljanovic in the 2022 US Open.

Williams started the match well and her signature serves were proving difficult for Tomljanovic to deal with. However, the Australian settled well as the match progressed and served up some brilliant shots of her own. Williams kept coming back, though, and she always had a fighting chance to roar back. Ultimately, she couldn’t keep up with Tomljanovic’s sheer determination to pull off a shock result.

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Written by:

Sudipto is a Tennis writer at EssentiallySports. He completed his graduation in Journalism and Mass Communication in 2012. His passion for writing became a full-time profession in 2019 after working as a musician and travelling educator.

Edited by:

Aayush Kapoor

42-Year-Old Venus Williams Processed Intense Emotions During Serena Williams’ Retirement Match – ‘Don’t Know What I Would Have…’

Serena Williams defeat was a ‘shared loss’, says Venus

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How did Serena’s career end in defeat?