"I should have had 30-plus Grand Slams" - Serena Williams sums up her career

"I should have had 30-plus Grand Slams" - Serena Williams sums up her career

by Zlatko Vodenicharov

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We won't see Serena Williams on tennis courts in 2023 as she revealed on Tuesday and the 2022 US Open will be the last time she will get a chance to broaden her collection of Grand Slam titles.

Serena Williams is a 23-time Grand Slam champion and misses only one title to equal the record of 24 Grand Slam titles. However, she had 33 chances to win a Grand Slam title, or at least the chances she had when playing in the final. And after announcing the retirement, Williams reflected on her career, stating:

"I started playing tennis with the goal of winning the U.S. Open. I didn’t think past that. And then I just kept winning. I remember when I passed Martina Hingis’s grand slam count. Then Seles’s. And then I tied Billie Jean King, who is such an inspiration for me because of how she has pioneered gender equality in all sports," wrote Williams for Vogue.

"Then it was climbing over the Chris Evert–Martina Navratilova mountain. 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."

"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. 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," wrote Serena Williams.

"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."

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