Yahoo Finance Alexis Ohanian Praises Wife Serena Williams' 'Depth of Influence' Ahead of Her Expected Retirement
Alexis Ohanian Instagram Serena Williams, Alexis Ohanian and daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian
Alexis Ohanian penned a touching message for his legendary wife, Serena Williams, after the tennis champion announced she'd be "evolving away from" the sport earlier this week.
Ohanian, 39, shared a sweet photo of himself and the couple's 4-year-old daughter, Olympia, along with a heartfelt tribute to Williams' career and legacy.
"I've seen over the last 7 years how much y'all love my wife — what she means to so many, worldwide," wrote Ohanian. "It's unlike anything I've ever seen. Plenty of folks have told me 'how Reddit changed their life,' but the scale & impact of 'how Serena changed my life' stories absolutely dwarfs it."
He continued, "And that's just the stuff I hear when people come up to me to say hi. You simply cannot overstate the breadth and depth of influence she's had on so many people. As far as I can tell, she has no idea. @serenawilliams doesn't think about it, or even realize it."
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Ohanian, who wed Williams in Dec. 2017, also added a photo of a fan holding up a sign for his wife that read, "Queen."
Williams appreciated the sweet message, leaving multiple heart emojis in the comments of her husband's post. The 40-year-old athlete will try to win a history-making 24th Grand Slam victory at the U.S. Open at the end of the month before beginning an "evolution" away from tennis, she announced on the Sept. 2022 cover of Vogue Tuesday.
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"I have never liked the word retirement," Williams wrote in a first-person essay for the magazine. "It doesn't feel like a modern word to me. I've been thinking of this as a transition, but I want to be sensitive about how I use that word, which means something very specific and important to a community of people. Maybe the best word to describe what I'm up to is evolution."
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"I'm here to tell you that I'm evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me." Williams said that she has been "reluctant to admit" to herself or the people around her that "I have to move on from playing tennis."
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"There is no happiness in this topic for me," she said. "I know it's not the usual thing to say, but I feel a great deal of pain. It's the hardest thing that I could ever imagine. I hate it. I hate that I have to be at this crossroads. I keep saying to myself, I wish it could be easy for me, but it's not. I'm torn: I don't want it to be over, but at the same time I'm ready for what's next."
Williams, the founder of investment firm Serena Ventures and the clothing line S by Serena, said that she wants to refocus her attention elsewhere, and she and Ohanian want to have another child.
"I definitely don't want to be pregnant again as an athlete," she explained. "I need to be two feet into tennis or two feet out."
