Serena Williams says if she is actually missing playing professional tennis three years after retiring

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Serena Williams’ illustrious career finally came to an end three years ago.

The American legend called a halt to her playing days at the 2022 US Open, where she advanced to the third round before being knocked out by Ajla Tomljanovic.

Williams initially announced her retirement in an article with Vogue that year, explaining that she wanted to ‘evolve away’ from tennis.

She recorded, arguably, the greatest career in women’s tennis history, having claimed 73 tour-level titles, 23 of which were Grand Slams.

Now, three years on, Williams revealed whether she actually misses playing professionally on the WTA Tour.

Serena Williams talks about the difficulty of retiring from tennis

When asked in an interview with Porter if she misses tennis, Williams responded: “Not as much as this time last year.

“No matter how prepared you are to retire, and particularly from doing something every day at such a high level, it’s hard.

“I really prepped myself the best way I could, but it’s something that’s still a little difficult.”

She then said: “I feel fortunate that I’ve had a career and that I don’t have to do what most people do. I’m very lucky.

“I put in the hard work, like we all are doing, but I did it a little bit earlier. So, I think that’s really working in my favour. And [now I can] just put my kids first.

“I want to be around my family. I’m cooking every night that I’m home. I’m home 29 nights a month. Sometimes I’ll fly to New York, do what I need to do, fly back and be home in time for dinner.”

Serena Williams’ career prize money total on the WTA Tour

Williams earned an incredible amount of prize money during her time on the WTA Tour, having raked in a record total of $94,816,730.

She also once held the record for the most amount of prize money earned in a single season, which she achieved in 2013, the year she won two Grand Slams, the WTA Finals, and five WTA 1000 events.

That season, Williams made $12,385,572 in prize money, a record tally that was broken in 2025 by world number one Aryna Sabalenka, who made $15,008,519 this year.

Her sister, Venus Williams, has earned $42,867,364 in her career, and has still yet to retire from tennis.