Why we'll miss Serena Williams after she retires and what she has meant to the world

In a personal essay in Vogue’s September issue, Serena Williams, 40, announced she would retire from her tennis career after the U.S. Open. After winning her first match Monday at Arthur Ashe Stadium and her elimination of No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit Wednesday, it’s clear she’s not ready to say goodbye just yet.

Neither are we.

The 23-time Grand Slam champion and four-time Olympic gold medalist says she wants to focus on growing her family, her spiritual life, and her business: Serena Ventures. She’ll forever be remembered as one of the greatest athletes of all time — if not the greatest — yet what resonates with us most goes beyond her titles.

USA TODAY intern Ashley Ahn, who started playing tennis when she was about 5 and had a Serena and Venus Williams racket, and deputy opinion editor/national columnist Suzette Hackney, who met both the Williams sisters at the “King Richard” premiere, discuss the impending retirement and what Williams has meant to them on and off the court. Their conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Ahn: My first memory of even just starting tennis and picking up a racket started with Serena. That was around 2005. When I told my mom I wanted to play tennis, she went out and got me racket. And it ended up being a Serena racket with her face and Venus’ face on the cover of the racket. So literally my first memory of tennis is Serena and Venus. Growing up as a tennis player, especially as a little girl watching Serena dominate the sport and not only overcoming the obstacles of her opponents and having to win but also the obstacles as a woman and a woman of color playing tennis – and the discriminatory treatment and negative comments that she’s had to deal with throughout her career – she means more to me than just an amazing tennis player. She transcends beyond the sport itself, which is why I admire her so much.

Hackney: I went to the “King Richard” premiere and I was able to meet both Serena and Venus. Talk about feeling like you’re in a room with royalty. The way they carry themselves, the kindness that they emit, just the greatness, and it was overwhelming. I was shy. I’m not typically super outspoken; it took all that I had to just be able to go up to them and say hello, and tell them how much I admired them. It was that big of a deal. I had that big of a celebrity moment.

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Talk about 2001, when Venus and Serena played each other in the U.S. Open final, the first Grand Slam final between sisters in 117 years.

Hackney: They’re both younger than I am, but I watched them as as they rose to this level of greatness. And to see them play each other in a major like that – I remember that moment like it was yesterday. I was glued to my TV, and I was just sobbing. I sobbed throughout the whole match, seeing these strong amazing women accomplish something. I’m the baby sister, and so I thought about how that felt for Serena to have to play her older sister. And what kind of emotion that she had and the mental strength that she had during that match, too. It had to be so difficult.

And you know that’s the thing about Serena. I just feel like she has inspired me and so many other Black girls and Black women. She’s taught us to be fearless. She’s taught us to strive to be at the top of our games, and I’m not just talking about athletics, but just in life. What I love about this announcement of her retiring is that she is still controlling her own destiny. And that’s a very powerful thing to me.

Ahn: The Gen Z version of getting to watch the Williams sisters go at it at a big finals was Australian Open (in) 2017. It was quite emotional when I was 17 getting to watch them. I was too young to witness their stardom in the 2000s, so I would go on YouTube and watch the Williams sisters’ doubles title (match in 2008) for the Olympics in Beijing. Just witnessing greatness through YouTube.

Hackney: Let’s not forget in that 2017 Australian Open, Serena was pregnant when she won. Talk about amazing.

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Ahn: She’s also shown other female tennis players out there that it’s OK to express your emotions in a raw way on the court. Serena has got a lot of flak for her emotions being too raw or not being as feminine, whereas the men, you know, no one bats an eye when they show their expression and emotion and frustration, so that’s another key point that Serena brings to the game of women’s tennis.

Serena has set a legacy for herself off the court, being a fashion icon, being a business mogul. Can you talk about other aspects of her legacy?

Hackney: What I love about her legacy and all the things that she has delved into is that she always puts pressure on herself to be the best of the best. And that’s inspiring. When you think about her as a mother, one of the reasons she said she’s retiring is because she wants to grow her family. And that’s important to her. She said I either have to have two feet in tennis or two feet in, you know, motherhood and being a parent and trying to get pregnant again. She’s choosing that.

Ahn: Something that Serena wrote in that Vogue piece that stood out to me was that she wanted to be like Billie Jean King. She wanted to remembered as someone who transcends the sport. If I were to speak to Serena directly – while Billie Jean King was not my generation, Serena is certainly. I grew up looking up to her, so I hope she knows that to all the Gen Z kids who grew up watching her, she is our Billie Jean King. She’s shown us how to hold yourself in the face of discrimination and unfair treatment and negativity, and in fighting for gender equality and such.

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It’s heartbreaking to see her leave the sport, but at the same time I’m reminding myself that I should also be congratulating her and celebrating her next chapter, as Suzette said, into motherhood and trying to advance your business goals.

Hackney: I’m just grateful. And that’s what I told her when I met her. For years now, I got to watch greatness. I got to watch someone filled with grace, even in her most difficult times on the court when she was losing or, as Ashley said, letting her emotions hang out there, still so graceful. Graceful when she was ill after giving birth and open about talking about that. Helping other women realize (you should) have your doctors listen to you. Listen to your body, you know your body. Grateful for her strength as a Black woman. Just grateful.

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More from Suzette Hackney:

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Is Serena retiring after US Open? What she meant to tennis and to us