Serena Williams: How life after tennis is treating me

Dishevelled, sweat-soaked, frazzled – this is Serena Williams, one of the all-time greats of tennis – a fashion icon, entrepreneur, sport superstar – just two weeks after stepping away from the sport she graced on the professional circuit for 27 years. So what happened?

Soccer practice. That’s what happened.

Staring into a selfie video posted to Instagram, the 41-year-old laughingly explains to more than 15 million social media followers how she’d taken five-year-old daughter Olympia to her first football practice and by the end of the session had become a volunteer assistant coach.

“I showed up to Olympia’s first soccer practice. And she was so nervous she would NOT leave my side. So they needed volunteers to be assistant coaches. So now, I am an assistant coach (when I can) and clearly I was not prepared. I just went to chill and left looking like this.”

Williams’ early post-tennis life appears to be starting with laughter and joy in the absurdities and beauty of everyday life, presumably sometimes missing from a life previously filled with rigorous training sessions, weeks on the road, mentally-draining competition, and time-sapping media and marketing obligations as a pro tennis player.

Just three weeks ago, a tearful Williams - widely recognised as one of the greatest tennis players of all time - left the court for what is believed to be the last time after a third round loss at the US Open to Australia's Ajla Tomljanovic.

With a record 23 grand slam singles title wins, the most ever in the Open Era, and just one behind the record set by Australia’s Margaret Court, the former world number one Serena also claimed 16 major doubles titles (14 alongside older sister Venus) and two in mixed doubles. With her sibling she also won three Olympic doubles gold medals and one singles title for Team USA.

But in an article for Vogue magazine in August, Williams' announced that her playing days were coming to a close, and at the last major of the year in New York she waved goodbye to fans as she looked toward growing her family and ongoing business ventures.

"I don’t know how I’m going to be able to look at this magazine when it comes out, knowing that this is it, the end of a story that started in Compton, California, with a little Black girl who just wanted to play tennis," Williams wrote in the piece, deliberately avoiding the word 'retirement'.

"But these days, if I have to choose between building my tennis resume and building my family, I choose the latter."

Williams’ last Grand Slam win came in 2017 at the Australian Open, the same year she had daughter Olympia and married Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.

“As a super hands-on mom, I can’t tell you how hard it was. I lost so many matches after I had Olympia because it was so hard to be on the court. I feel like I’ve given so much of my life to tennis, my entire life, that it’s time to do something different for me and also work on other things.”

Those other things include her first children's book, 'The Adventures of Qai Qai', out on 27 September, in which a little girl learns to believe in herself with the help of her doll and best friend.

Business investments will continue via Serena Ventures, a decade-old company which backs founders, particularly women and people of colour. Recipients including Fiveable, a student online study workspace, Foody, a recipe marketplace for culinary creators, and Bunch, a group video chat app for gamers.

Fashion continues to be a passion, from catwalk to modelling to giving access and resources to the next generation of designers through the Serena Williams Design Crew.

More trips away with the family, such as an impromptu trip to Athens taken with her family in June, will also be on the cards.

So the evolution of Serena Williams away from the court is taking shape.

It turns out those qualities that helped her succeed at the highest level on the showcase stages of world tennis – hard work, business sense, a supportive team, and love of her family – are the same that are helping her away from it. And that apparently includes getting hot, sweaty and dishevelled.