Serena Williams welcomes Tom Brady to ‘retirement world again’ as she opens up about her final match ‘regret’

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Serena Williams admits she got “teary-eyed” after legendary quarterback Tom Brady confirmed he is retiring “for good”.

23-time Grand Slam winner Williams has long been an admirer of NFL great Brady, a seven-time Super Bowl champion, and she even admitted that she could follow in his footsteps with regard to unretiring.

The tennis great, of course, was referring to the NFL legend’s announcement in early 2022 that he would retire from the sport only to change his mind a few weeks later and compete for another season.

After her own “retirement” in September last year, which she described as “evolving away from tennis”, Williams hinted that she was a fan of Brady’s “trend”.

“You never know,” she said when asked about coming out of retirement. “I’ve been saying that I think Tom Brady started a really cool trend.”

Fast forward a few months and it seems Brady has now hung up his helmet for good.

“Good morning, guys. I’ll get to the point right away: I’m retiring. For good,” he said in an Instagram post.

“I know the process was a pretty big deal last time, so when I woke up this morning, I figured I’d just press ‘record’ and let you guys know first. So, I won’t be long-winded. You only get one super-emotional retirement essay, and I used mine up last year.”

Serena Williams on Tom Brady's retirement

Williams replied: “I’m getting teary-eyed watching this. Sad to see you go. Welcome to the retirement world again….Again.”

Earlier in the week the tennis great discussed her final match at last year’s US Open, saying “I just felt like what I could have done better that day”.

Williams had announced before the hard-court Grand Slam that he would quit after the tournament and after winning her opening two matches at Flushing Meadows – including a three-set win over second seed Anett Kontaveit – she came up against Ajla Tomljanovic.

She threatened to pull off another brilliant comeback win, but ultimate went down 7-5, 6-7 (4-7), 6-1.

Asked by Gayle King on CBS Mornings how she felt the morning after waving goodbye, Williams replied: “That’s a really good question, no-one’s asked me that yet. I was actually not very happy at all, just because of the result.

“I was there to keep going and to keep winning, and it was more or less like, I can’t believe I let that match go more than anything…

“Obviously it was a great moment and a great memory and I don’t feel like I’ve left anything, but I just felt like what I could have done better that day.”

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