Serena Williams has admitted to feeling conflicted about un-retiring from tennis having picked up a racket again. The 42-year-old played her last match back in 2022 but has admitted that she is “torn” about making a comeback to the sport.

Williams played her last game in 2022 following a glittering career that saw her lift 23 Grand Slam titles. Despite her many years on tennis’ grandest stages, the American’s final game saw her fall to a three set defeat to Ajla Tomljanović in the third round of the US Open.

Prior to the defeat at Flushing Meadows, Serena revealed that she was retiring from the sport due to family reasons. “I have never liked the word retirement,” she said in a statement at the time. “Maybe the best word to describe what I’m up to is evolution. I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me.

Following her retirement, Serena revealed just five months later that she had second thoughts about leaving the sport behind. Speaking to E!, she claimed: “I for sure feel more at peace now. It’s interesting. I think I feel torn because I’m still able to play at a very, very, very high level.”

“With that being said, I always wanted to leave the game playing at a very high level,” she went on to add. “I also wanted to walk away when I’m healthy and have a quality of life. But I’m inch by inch leaning away, inch by inch embracing it. I was playing earlier when I first retired because it was hard to do it cold turkey.

But lately, I haven’t played so much. And I miss it. I’m like, ‘Oh my goodness. I gotta get out there’. But it’s hard for me to get out there. I did play the other day, and it’s just like, ‘There’s no way I shouldn’t be playing professional tennis’. Like, there’s literally no excuse.

But I mean, I guess there is an excuse, right? It’s hard because when I’m playing I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m pretty good at this. I can continue to do this,’ which not a lot of people can say.”

While tennis has dominated much of Serena’s life – having turned professional at the age of 14 in 1995 – she has also taken part in several other ventures. The sporting icon has spent much of her career involved in fashion, activism, charity work and other sports ventures – including investments in NWSL team Angel City FC and owning a minority stake in NFL franchise the Miami Dolphins.

Now free to explore other ventures, Serena went on to add that she is enjoying spending more time on her businesses and with her family.

“I’ve been playing tennis for literally my entire life,” she added. “My entire being and knowing is just what I’ve done. So now, I’m inch by inch finding my way. “Obviously, I love other businesses that I’ve done. But just inch by inch leaning into that and leaning into my family and leaning into just having fun.”