VENUS WILLIAMS gave a shock retirement update at the veteran age of 44.
The tennis legend – sister of fellow great Serena – turned pro all the way back in 1994.
But after 30 years on the WTA circuit and seven Grand Slam titles, she insists she is not prepared to call time on her extraordinary career just yet because she still loves tennis.
That is despite the fact she has not played since first-round defeats in the Sunshine Double in Indian Wells and Miami in March – and not won a match since August 2023.
Williams, born in June 1980, told the Irish News: “I’m not done with the racquet yet.
“At this point, it’s about picking and choosing places I want to be.
“Last year I really wanted to play in Miami – home – because I hadn’t played there in like five years.
“It’s nice to be in a place where I can pick and choose, but my game is always at a high level. Even if I’m not on tour, I always keep my game quite high.
“I took some time off the court [after Miami] to do all kinds of things – I’m like, I need to go back to tennis so I can have some time to myself.
“I always watch the tournaments as much as I can – it’s hard to sit in front of the TV, and a lot of times by the time I have time at like 11pm it’s a replay, but it’s still fun to watch all the competition.”
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Venus has won five Wimbledon titles while Serena collected seven of her 23 Majors at the All England Club.
But this summer’s tournament, won by Barbora Krejcikova, was the first women’s singles draw not featuring either Williams sister since 1996.
Venus, currently ranked No958 in the world with £32.6million in career earnings, has not been sitting around twiddling her thumbs during her time away from the court, though.
She runs her own interior design company, owns a plant-based protein shake called Happy Viking, wore an outfit of recycled tennis bags at Vogue World fashion event in Paris and released her latest book.
Strive: 8 Steps to Find Your Awesome is all about maximising potential to live and achieve your best life – something she has demonstrated in the past decade since her diagnosis for the autoimmune disease Sjogren’s syndrome.
Williams added: “Finding out I had an incurable autoimmune disorder – one that flares up unexpectedly, causing pain, numbness, and fatigue – was one of the hardest things to accept, especially when my career expects me to be at my physical best.
“Who gets diagnosed with a disease that starts with ‘S’ and ‘J’, you know? First of all, how do I pronounce this?
“It definitely made me look at things differently. Even when it was hard to look at things differently, just to focus on what I could accomplish instead of what I couldn’t.
“I think even this year I definitely pushed too hard, and it left me feeling very unmotivated, even though I had stuff to do.
“As an athlete, as a tennis player, you’re playing ten months a year – what balance is that?
“Number one is happiness. If you are not happy, nothing feels good – nothing feels successful or happy when you are sad inside.”
By Joshua Jones
THE absence of line judges at Wimbledon will be a sad sight.
For as long as I can remember, the men and women decked out in their Ralph Lauren outfits have been part of the furniture at the All England Club.
Yes, they provided some mild entertainment on the court when one would call “fault” with plenty of extra, and unnecessary, gusto and volume that boomed around Centre Court, prompting a snigger from the fans.
Then there was the ongoing game of dodgeball they had to play when a big serve nailed a mammoth ace down the line and they had to take rapid evasive action or take a whack to the top of the head.
And challenges provided some audience participation, excitedly joining in the clapping countdown before the inevitable “oooh” when the graphic showed just how close the ball was to landing in or out.
Purely objectively, Wimbledon’s decision to replace line judges with Hawk-Eye Live makes total sense.
The accuracy and consistency of calls in real-time will speed things up, save time and should mark the end of arguments over the tight incorrect calls – well, until the technology malfunctions.
And Wimbledon’s hand was somewhat forced to ditch tradition for their standing in tennis.
The Australian Open and US Open already use electronic line calling and the ATP Tour is adopting Hawk-Eye Live across all of its tournaments from 2025.
Wimbledon’s refusal to comply would leave them lagging behind and exposed to the threat of needless controversy over human error.
But the impact – as is so often the case in these decisions – has ramifications further down, below the surface with very little impact on Wimbledon’s Championships or the players.
It is on the line judges themselves.
Approximately 300 officials – aged from 18 to 80 – covered more than 650 matches at Wimbledon.
A fraction travel internationally with the circuit but the vast majority of those are part-time line judges based in the UK, earning up to £180 per day to work at the prestigious tournament and their chance to play their part at Wimbledon.
For many, they will help out at British tournaments throughout the year, spurred on by the possibility of taking to the lawns of the All England Club.
But it is understood many of those officials would be reluctant to work at the lower-level tournaments without the carrot of Wimbledon dangling in the summer.
That in turn will put a major stumbling block in the pathway for British tennis umpires, who grind up through the ranks to reach the pinnacle of the sport.
Like football with referees, tennis needs umpires and line judges.
So the inability to call “out” at Wimbledon could prove to be a major “fault” for the future of the UK’s tennis officials and therefore the state of the sport on these shores.
