Serena Williams Talks Her Legacy Amid Her Career Final Days

Serena Williams is reflecting on her almost 3-decade long career and opening up about what she believes is her legacy as she prepares to hang up her racket.

As you might know, Williams shared the devastating news earlier this month that she was considering stepping away from the sport of tennis to expand her family. While she isn't completely thrilled about saying goodbye to her first love, the 23-time Grand Slam winner believes she has made quite an impact in her time on the court.

In her August issue of Time Magazine, Williams got candid about what she believes she has not only done for the world of tennis but the world of sports at large, especially for women of color. The iconic athlete shared that she thinks her legacy is "Confidence and self-belief." She continued, "And teaching other Black kids, in particular Black girls, they can do it too."

Referencing rising tennis players like Naomi Osaka and Gauff Cori, Williams said, "No one has ever been able to tell such an inspiring, authentic story. You live through my mistakes. You live through my ups, you live through my downs. The surgeries and the comebacks. And it’s also a tale of never letting anyone write your story. A lot of people can relate to that. Always be authentically you. Own who you are. And love you. It’s a big tale of self-love."

The mother-of-one, who is married to tech millionaire and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, has often been humble about what she achieved in the industry. But as she inches closer to her final days, Williams is owning her achievements.

"We changed the game of tennis," she declared. "We changed how people play, period. People never attacked. People never took balls early. People never served like this. People never had to play so hard to beat two Black girls from Compton."

Even away from the court, the Compton-native revolutionalized beauty standards and what it means to be feminine when most of the world branded her as "masculine." She changed it, letting people women know they should love themselves regardless of how dark, muscular, or thick they looked.

In her words, "Giving them that confidence, that motivation, is something that has literally never been done. You don’t let the world decide beauty. And me being thicker or whatever, I mean, curves are popular now. Butts are popular. I’m trying to lose mine, and people are trying to get mine."

Williams' belief of what her legacy means was corroborated by many stars who agreed that she changed the sports of tennis in a way no one has ever done. Osaka, who beat Williams in the 2018 US Open final in a controversial match, credited her interest in the sport to her contender.

Osaka confessed, "I remember as a kid watching in awe, and I was so happy to be seeing a strong Black woman on my screen. Even though she is retiring, her legacy definitely lives on through Coco [Gauff], Sloane [Stephens], Madison [Keys], and other women of color at the top of their game. Serena is unequivocally the best athlete ever. Forget female athlete, I mean athlete. No one else has changed her sport as much as she did, and against all odds."

Lewis Hamilton, the first Black driver to win the F1 world drivers' championship, supports Osaka's sentiment and revealed he gained his inspiration to excel from none other than Williams.

"They were the two most inspiring sports figures for me," Hamilton told the publication. "Especially growing up in my sport, where I’m the only person of color, seeing these two prominent figures, also the only people of color, really gave me a lot of confidence that I can do something similar. It’s not impossible."

Earlier this month, the star athlete broke the news of her retirement in the September issue of Vogue Magazine. As we covered, she got candid about the struggle she faced to come to the "painful" decision. Williams revealed that she has to sacrifice her love for the sport because of her daughter Olympia's desire to be a big sister.

The 40-year-old admitted she wasn't ready to leave tennis, highlighting that her male counterparts in the sports industry wouldn't be faced with such choices.

"There is no happiness in this topic for me. I know it’s not the usual thing to say, but I feel a great deal of pain. It’s the hardest thing that I could ever imagine. I hate it. I hate that I have to be at this crossroads," she declared.