What an incredible run! 23 grand slam titles in a 27-year illustrious professional career. Tennis great Serena Williams bid farewell to her beloved career at the 2022 U.S. Open. Playing her last match in the 3rd round in a thriller in front of a jam packed, celebrity-filled audience, Williams, as always, gave her all to the very end but lost to Croatian-born Australian Ajla Tomljanović, ending her storybook run in the twilight of her career.
The three thrilling sets lasted more than three hours. The crowd inside the stadium was electric, with people shouting: “Go Serena!” and “Don’t give up!” It was a historic moment as she played the last match of her career in the same venue, the Arthur Ashe Stadium, 23 years after she won her first Grand Slam title.
Twirling her signature twirl, Williams gave a final wave before stepping off the court to Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best.” In an emotional post-match interview before walking off the court for the last time, Williams thanked her supporters and parents.
“Oh my god, thank you so much, you guys were amazing today,” she said. “Thank you, Daddy, I know you’re watching. Thanks, Mom. Thank you everyone that’s here, that’s been on my side—so many years, literally decades. But it all started with my parents, and they deserve everything. So I’m really grateful for them.” “These are happy tears, I guess. I don’t know.”
She went on to thank her sister Venus for “creating” Serena. “And I wouldn’t be Serena if there wasn’t Venus, so thank you Venus. She’s the only reason Serena Williams ever existed … It’s been a fun ride. It’s been the most incredible ride and journey I’ve ever been on.”
Announcing her retirement from tennis in August, in her own words in an emotional essay published on Voque, the greatest of all time wrote candidly about the point she is at in her life—and the balancing act she plays every day, trying to be both the world-renowned star athlete she is on the tennis court and the mom and wife her family needs her to be. The 40-year-old mother of one said though it was not an easy choice to make, she is ready for the next phase and looking forward to expanding her family.
Williams, who began her professional career at 14 and won her first major title at 17, walked away from the game with 858 tour victories, 73 singles titles, and an Olympic gold medal. She is the 3rd player atop the WTA singles for 319 weeks behind Steffi Graf (377) and Martina Navratilova (332). Together with Venus, Williams won 14 major doubles titles and three Olympic golds.
Dubbed “the GOAT of all GOATS,” Williams, who dominated across more than two decades, winning matches in her teens, 20s, 30s and 40s has been a little bit coy about her retirement plans. Asked if she would come back, she smiled and said: “I don’t think so, but you never know. I don’t know.”
She said she’d prefer to say she is “transitioning” from tennis. “I have never liked the word retirement,” “It doesn’t feel like a modern word to me.” Shall we be seeing Williams on the court again? We have to wait and see.
Williams is married to Reddit co-founder, Alexis Ohanian. They share a 5-year-old daughter Olympian Ohanian with whom she was pregnant at the Australian Open where she won her last grand slam title 5 years ago.
ABOUT FLORENCE MAFOMEMEH – FOUNDER, OWNER AND EDITOR OF BNN
Florence Mafomemeh is the founder, owner and editor of Black Nation News – BNN
Mafomemeh is a multimedia, backpack journalist and three-time B Free award-winning community video producer. She produces long and short form video and audio stories and writes news for broadcast and online media. She is very passionate about stories that impact the lives of ordinary people.
A native of Cameroon in West Africa, Mafomemeh wanted to become a journalist since the time she was in secondary school. As a news junkie, she realized that news hardly reach all ordinary people and their stories were not being told. She told herself that she would be a journalist so that she would bring the news to them and give them a voice by telling their stories to the world.
Growing up, Mafomemeh watched, read and listened to a lot of national and international news and used much of her pocket allowance to buy international news magazines like Time and Complete Football International. In order to not miss the news, she slept with a small radio under her pillow and usually left a tape for news to be recorded for her when she was not at home.
Currently living in New York City, Mafomemeh graduated from Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY in 2019 with a master’s degree in Journalism. While in school, she produced radio and TV News stories on deadline as a one-man band. She also reported news stories around New York City for the NYCITY News Service. Florence was also a news reporter and co-anchor for 219 West, a TV News Magazine that aired on CUNY-TV.
As a field Community video Producer at Brooklyn Free Speech TV, Mafomemeh produces news stories that highlight issues in East New York and New York City. Her stories have had eight B Free Award nominations and three wins – The George Stoney B Free Awards for Social Impact and B-Informed, and The B Free People’s Choice Award. Florence has also freelanced for NYCPolitics.com and was a NYS Election Reporting Fellow with the Center for Community Media at CUNY.
Mafomemeh also has a B.S. in Broadcast Journalism from CUNY- Brooklyn College, a B.A. in English, and an M.A. in the Literatures in English and Commonwealth nations from the University of Yaounde 1 in Cameroon. She specialized/majored in Caribbean Literature, focusing on the West Indies where she did her dissertation on the works of V.S. Naipaul. She also has certificates in journalism, community news production & reporting, proofreading and editing 101 from New York University-SCPS, People’s Production House and Teacher’s College, Columbia University.
While at people’s Production House, Mafomemeh was radio reporter and co-host of Global Movements Urban Struggles-GMUS on WBAI Radio. GMUS was a show that tackled various issues facing various communities in New York City and around the United States.
Having lived through many challenging experiences and seeing people going through them everyday, Mafomemeh is passionate about telling stories that matter. She is fulfilling her childhood dream of telling ordinary people’s stories that impact their lives and help to inspire others.
I hope you have a great time here on BNN and find something to take with you even if it is just a good laugh! Please, do not forget to subscribe to/sign up for the newsletter with your e-mail address to receive notifications of new posts. Please, also show me some love by sharing the link to the site.
Also check out my personal blog at Talking Point With Florence where you can also see the “MORE YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ME” blog post of November 2, 2013.
ABOUT FLORENCE MAFOMEMEH – FOUNDER, OWNER AND EDITOR OF BNN
Florence Mafomemeh is the founder, owner and editor of Black Nation News – BNN
Mafomemeh is a multimedia, backpack journalist and three-time B Free award-winning community video producer. She produces long and short form video and audio stories and writes news for broadcast and online media. She is very passionate about stories that impact the lives of ordinary people.
A native of Cameroon in West Africa, Mafomemeh wanted to become a journalist since the time she was in secondary school. As a news junkie, she realized that news hardly reach all ordinary people and their stories were not being told. She told herself that she would be a journalist so that she would bring the news to them and give them a voice by telling their stories to the world.
Growing up, Mafomemeh watched, read and listened to a lot of national and international news and used much of her pocket allowance to buy international news magazines like Time and Complete Football International. In order to not miss the news, she slept with a small radio under her pillow and usually left a tape for news to be recorded for her when she was not at home.
Currently living in New York City, Mafomemeh graduated from Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY in 2019 with a master’s degree in Journalism. While in school, she produced radio and TV News stories on deadline as a one-man band. She also reported news stories around New York City for the NYCITY News Service. Florence was also a news reporter and co-anchor for 219 West, a TV News Magazine that aired on CUNY-TV.
As a field Community video Producer at Brooklyn Free Speech TV, Mafomemeh produces news stories that highlight issues in East New York and New York City. Her stories have had eight B Free Award nominations and three wins – The George Stoney B Free Awards for Social Impact and B-Informed, and The B Free People’s Choice Award. Florence has also freelanced for NYCPolitics.com and was a NYS Election Reporting Fellow with the Center for Community Media at CUNY.
Mafomemeh also has a B.S. in Broadcast Journalism from CUNY- Brooklyn College, a B.A. in English, and an M.A. in the Literatures in English and Commonwealth nations from the University of Yaounde 1 in Cameroon. She specialized/majored in Caribbean Literature, focusing on the West Indies where she did her dissertation on the works of V.S. Naipaul. She also has certificates in journalism, community news production & reporting, proofreading and editing 101 from New York University-SCPS, People’s Production House and Teacher’s College, Columbia University.
While at people’s Production House, Mafomemeh was radio reporter and co-host of Global Movements Urban Struggles-GMUS on WBAI Radio. GMUS was a show that tackled various issues facing various communities in New York City and around the United States.
Having lived through many challenging experiences and seeing people going through them everyday, Mafomemeh is passionate about telling stories that matter. She is fulfilling her childhood dream of telling ordinary people’s stories that impact their lives and help to inspire others.
I hope you have a great time here on BNN and find something to take with you even if it is just a good laugh! Please, do not forget to subscribe to/sign up for the newsletter with your e-mail address to receive notifications of new posts. Please, also show me some love by sharing the link to the site.
Also check out my personal blog at Talking Point With Florence where you can also see the “MORE YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ME” blog post of November 2, 2013.
