Is ‘Low-Key’ Venus Williams Poised To Follow Younger Sister Serena Into Retirement?

While the entire sporting world will have its eyes on Serena Williams as she plays what is expected to be her final tournament at the U.S. Open, her older sister Venus has more or less flown under the radar.

Venus, 42, has not announced any retirement plans, but some in the tennis world believe she will also call it quits after playing the Open.

“I think that it would very much surprise me if Venus Williams doesn’t retire as well at the U.S. Open,” six-time Grand Slam doubles champion Rennae Stubbs said on the Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast, via Sportskeeda.

“It’ll be interesting to see what Venus does now because I just can’t see one playing without the other,” Stubbs added. “So Venus, of course, as always very low-key, Venus will probably finish the last match and be like, yeah, by the way, that’s it. Like, you know, that sort of personality. You know, as I can see, Venus being like ‘Yeah, bye. That’s it. I’m done.”

While Serena will play her first match Monday night at 7 p.m. against Danka Kovinić, Venus will debut Tuesday at around 2 p.m. against Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium. Venus is currently ranked 1,445 in the world and is 0-3 in 2022.

A winner of 49 singles titles, including seven Grand Slam crowns, Venus won the U.S. Open in 2000 and ‘01 and has career on-court earnings of more than $42 million. But she hasn’t appeared in a major final since losing to Serena in the 2017 Australian Open final when Serena was pregnant with her daughter Olympia.

In 2001, the U.S. Open began instituting a prime-time women’s final to capitalize on the mass appeal of the Williams’ sisters, who were taught tennis by their father Richard Williams on outdoor public hardcourts in Compton, a story that was captured in the recent documentary King Richard starring Will Smith.

“When they first played, Venus and Serena prime time in the finals,” four-time U.S. Open champion John McEnroe said. “The ratings were through the roof and that was incredible. That just electrified the women’s game even more so, I believe. Took it to a whole other level, the two Williams sisters.”

McEnroe said he too believes Venus could retire at the Open.

“I want to give credit to Venus as well because I’m sure Venus is thinking about the same thing that Serena is, and she’s done a lot for Serena, in my book, supporting her and being with her because she was the one that was at the top and then the dad was saying, which you can’t forget, I’ve got the younger sister’s gonna be even better,” he said.

Six-time U.S. Open champion Chrissie Evert also noted that Venus is flying under the radar.

“Venus, nobody is even talking about Venus,” she said. “It’s like, if you just set her apart from Serena and you look at her record and you look at how many Wimbledons she’s won and you look at Grand Slams and doubles and you look at the influence she’s had, and she’s been such a different personality than Serena. And she’s not getting a lot of attention.

“Are they going to both retire at the same time? Is Venus going to keep going and Serena is going to retire? I think that’s an interesting question too. What are Venus plans? She’s kind of in the shadow of Serena right now and nobody is taking stock of what her tennis plans are. But that would be interesting, too. “

As for what could be ahead for Venus, in an interview this week with Today, she said she enjoyed serving as an executive producer for the romantic comedy Game, Set, Love.

“Definitely love the whole behind the scenes thing,” she said.

Serena added, “It’s gonna be great and I’m excited for it.”

If both Williams sisters leave the tennis world after the Open, it will create a major void on the women’s side. After all, they helped revolutionize women’s tennis — and sports in general — over the last two decades.

But Evert believes the sport will rebound and survive, just as it always has.

“Women’s tennis is going to bounce back,” she said. “Nobody is bigger — really, nobody is bigger than the game. And I think that, thank heavens, we have Coco [Gauff] and we have Leylah [Fernandez] and we have the younger girls, [Emma] Raducanu, who are big draws, huge draws. And I think it just remains to be seen, really.

“But I think as big as she has been to the game of tennis and as prolific and as instrumental, I think that it will take maybe a year, maybe two years, or whatever. Right now the high point of women’s tennis depth, nobody’s dominating. I mean, you can’t really say [Iga] Swiatek is dominating now. It’s all about the depth. And hopefully in the next few years somebody will emerge from that depth with charisma and with great tennis and personality and kind of take over the women’s game and we’ll be in an even better position.”