Shortly after losing in straight sets against England’s Emma Raducanu, global tennis superstar Serena Williams announced to the world that she will be retiring from the sport after a glittering career that spanned almost 30 years.
The question that’s now being asked by many sports fans, tennis players, and commentators around the world is; who is ready to step into her shoes as the next global star of the sport? Even online betting platforms offer odds on who will be the next to step into her shoes. Some say Raducanu from England, Swiatek from Poland, Badosa from Spain, or even Halep from Romania. Who do you think it will be to make the step up?
Who is Serena Williams?
Serena Williams is one of the most famous women’s professional tennis players ever to grace the game. The right-handed, 40-year-old US tennis star was born in Saginaw, Michigan, in September 1981, and after turning pro in 1995, she went on to win an incredible 23 grand slam titles (e.g., winning all four major championships in one discipline in the same calendar year). Some of the major events she won include the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open.
She also won a gold medal in the 2012 Summer Olympics, beating Russia’s Maria Sharapova 6-0, 6-1 in the final. She is the younger sister of Venus Williams (42), who was also a multi-grand-slam-winning tennis player, and she was trained by her father, Richard Williams, from 1994 until the end of her career. Williams was also trained by Oracene Price and Patrick Mouratoglou from 2012-2022.
She has been world number one, and according to Forbes magazine, in 2021, she was ranked as the world’s 28th highest paid athlete. Williams is also recognised as the highest-earning female athlete of all time, having earned around $100,000,000 in prize money throughout her career! She has always been a popular bet at all of the major online betting sites whenever she played and was more often than not the favourite to win.
What’s next for Serena Williams?
She is expected to leave the sport for good after the upcoming US Open, which is scheduled to commence in late August 2022. Williams plans to carve out a career away from tennis and venture into something new. She will reportedly be investing in a variety of organisations and will no doubt be a regular on major television shows, and perhaps she may even appear in a movie as herself in a cameo role. It’s anybody’s guess.
Some have said that she may end up being involved with the fashion industry in one way or another, but no matter what she decides to do in her post-tennis life, she will no doubt be successful. Many of the major brands will surely want to sign her up, and she will more than likely become a top earner as an influencer and/or podcaster. We will just have to wait and see.
Who can become the next global tennis superstar?
Although Williams lost to Emma Raducanu 6-4, 6-0, Raducanu is currently not the world’s number 1. At the time of writing, she is ranked at number 13, but she’s still only 19 years old. At number 1 on the official ATP tennis rankings right now is Poland’s Iga Swiatek. At number 2 is Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit, and at number 3 is Maria Sakkari from Greece.
Other contenders for potentially becoming tennis’s next global female superstar are Spain’s Paula Badosa (currently ranked at number 4), Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur (number 5), and Romania’s Simona Halep (number 6). You then have Aryna Sabalenka, Jessica Pegula, Garbine Muguruza, and Darya Kasatkina in at 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th, respectively. Only time will tell whether or not one of these top ten female tennis players can go on to become as great as Serena Williams.
