It’s attainable Williams, who’s ranked no 1,151, won’t ever retire.
Former US Open and French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova has not performed since Wimbledon 2021, however is but formally to name it a day.
Venus’ sister Serena, in the meantime, didn’t just like the phrase retirement, preferring as an alternative to “evolve away from the game” in September 2022.
Serena’s identify does, nonetheless, seem on the Worldwide Tennis Integrity Company’s retired gamers checklist.
Becoming a member of that checklist is a robust dedication to retiring, as any participant who later adjustments their thoughts should make themselves obtainable for drug testing for six months earlier than returning to play.
It means Venus might nonetheless anticipate a go to from out-of-competition testers. However she not must submit particulars of her each day whereabouts as she was faraway from the worldwide registered testing pool final June – a common course of for singles gamers who drop out of the world’s prime 100.
Williams has not performed often sufficient to qualify as both a full or affiliate member of the WTA Tour this 12 months, however she has additionally not accomplished a WTA retirement type.
To play once more she would wish to fill out an annual participant type and discover a $250 administration payment from the practically $43m of prize cash she has earned.
Her administration staff didn’t reply to a request for details about her plans and it appears Williams will preserve us guessing somewhat longer. Any concepts she may need for the summer season haven’t been broadly shared inside the sport.
Many retirement tributes have been written and signed off a very long time in the past.
They might nonetheless want updating.
