…….since announcing her retirement
The Serena Williams farewell tour is officially in effect.
A day after she announced her pending retirement from tennis, the 23-time Grand Slam champion took the court on Wednesday to a standing ovation in Toronto at the National Bank Open.
The match turned out to be her last at the event. Williams defeated Nuria Parrizas Diaz in opening round play on Monday, her first victory in just her third match of an injury-plagued 2022 season.
On Wednesday, she fell in straight sets (6-2, 6-4) to No. 12 seed and reigning Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic of Switzerland. When the match was over, she received another raucous ovation from a Toronto crowd realizing that it had just seen her for the last time.
Williams then spoke publicly for the first time since penning in Tuesday’s Vogue essay that “I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me.”
