Serena Williams Likely Plays Final Match of Legendary Career After Losing at US Open: 'Most Incredible Ride'

Twenty-three years after Serena Williams won her first US Open, she likely played the last match of her historic, dominant career Friday night after losing in the third round of the 2022 tournament.

Hopes were high in Arthur Ashe Stadium after Williams dominated early in the first two sets, but her opponent, Ajla Tomljanović of Australia, reeled her back in each time. Tomljanović won the first set 7-5 and Williams eked out a tiebreak win in the second, but couldn't overcome the Aussie in the third, losing 6-1.

Williams had said ahead of the tournament that she would be "evolving away from tennis" after the US Open, and expectations were that this would be her last time playing. This may have been the end, but in post-match interviews earlier this week she's hedged the question.

Eduardo MunozAlvarez/VIEWpress/Getty Serena Williams

"I've been pretty vague about it, right?" she said Monday after winning her first-round match. "I'm going to stay vague because you never know."

On Friday, though, Williams sounded more definitive when asked in her post-match interview if this was really it.

"I don't think so, but you never know," she said. "I don't know."

Elsa/Getty Serena Williams

Tearing up, Williams thanked the cheering crowd for their support over her 25 years as a pro.

"Thank you so much, you guys were amazing today," she said. "I tried. Everyone that's here, been on my side so many years, decades."

"Thank you Daddy, I know you're watching," she continued. "Thanks Mom. It all started with my parents, so I'm so grateful to them. I wouldn't be Serena if there wasn't Venus, so thank you Venus. She's the only reason Serena Williams ever existed."

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The sports icon, who went pro at age 14 in 1995 after being trained by her father, Richard Williams, in their Compton, California neighborhood, is a seven-time Australian Open women's singles champion, a seven-time Wimbledon winner, a six-time US Open victor, and has won the French Open three times.

Along the way, she and older sister, Venus, teamed up to win 14 major doubles championships.

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Elsa/Getty Serena and Venus Williams

For Vogue's September 2022 cover, Serena wrote in a first-person essay about her ambivalent feelings towards the end of her professional sports career.

"I have never liked the word retirement," Williams wrote. "It doesn't feel like a modern word to me. I've been thinking of this as a transition, but I want to be sensitive about how I use that word, which means something very specific and important to a community of people. Maybe the best word to describe what I'm up to is evolution."

She continued, "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. I keep saying to myself, I wish it could be easy for me, but it's not. I'm torn: I don't want it to be over, but at the same time I'm ready for what's next."

The founder of Serena Ventures said that she and her husband, Alexis Ohanian, who share daughter Olympia, 4, are planning to expand their family.

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"In the last year, Alexis and I have been trying to have another child, and we recently got some information from my doctor that put my mind at ease and made me feel that whenever we're ready, we can add to our family," she wrote. "I definitely don't want to be pregnant again as an athlete. I need to be two feet into tennis or two feet out."

Jean Catuffe/Getty Images Olympia and Alexis Ohanian

Serena's decision comes two months after a difficult first-round exit at Wimbledon this year — her return to competitive tennis for the first time since the 2021 event, when she slipped on the court and suffered a right leg injury, forcing her to withdraw.

Williams then notably missed the 2021 US Open. In December 2021, she revealed she would not be participating in January's 2022 Australian Open on the advice of her medical team.

Serena wrote last month she looks back on her career with pride, especially after the birth of Olympia.

"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," she wrote.

On Friday night, her opponent Tomljanović overcame a rowdy, pro-Serena crowd to win.

Al Bello/Getty Ajla Tomlijanović

"I'm really really sorry, because I love Serena just as much as all of you do," Tomljanović said in her post-match interview. "This is a surreal moment for me."

"She's the greatest of all time, period."

As Williams wrapped up her post-match interview, she thanked the fans in Arthur Ashe — and the millions more across the globe that have celebrated her over her epic, 25-year career.

"It's been the most incredible ride and journey that I've ever been on in my life," she said. "I'm just so grateful, because you have gotten me here."