Serena Williams, without getting into specifics, announced Tuesday she is ready to step away from tennis. The 23-time Grand Slam champion hinted that US Open this year might be her last major. 

In an essay released Tuesday by Vogue magazine, and a post on Instagram, Williams said that ‘the countdown has begun’. The American superstar turns 41 next month. She got married to social media site Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. The two have a daughter together – Olympia – who turns five this year. 

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Serena Williams in her essay said that she is stepping away from the game so she can turn her focus to having another child and her business interests.

“There comes a time in life when we have to decide to move in a different direction. That time is always hard when you love something so much. My goodness do I enjoy tennis. But now, the countdown has begun,” Williams, who  wrote on Instagram. “I have to focus on being a mom, my spiritual goals and finally discovering a different, but just (as) exciting Serena. I’m gonna relish these next few weeks.”

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Williams turned professional aged 14. She won her first grand slam title at 17 at the 1999 US Open. In a two-and-a-half decade career, she has won 23 Grand Slam titles – more than any man or woman in the modern-era. The 40-year-old also owns 14 Grand Slam doubles championships, all won with her older sister, Venus, part of a remarkable tale of two siblings from Compton, California, who grew up to both be ranked No. 1, win dozens of trophies and dominate tennis for stretches — a story told in the Oscar-winning film “King Richard.”

“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,” she wrote. “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.”

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Williams is playing this week in Toronto, at a hard-court tournament that leads into the U.S. Open. That will be the year’s last Grand Slam event and one she has won six times, most recently in 2014, to go along with seven titles apiece at Wimbledon and the Australian Open, plus three at the French Open.

The official Twitter feed for Wimbledon posted this message Tuesday above a photo of Williams: “Some play the game. Others change it.”

“I don’t particularly like to think about my legacy. I get asked about it a lot, and I never know exactly what to say. But I’d like to think that thanks to opportunities afforded to me, women athletes feel that they can be themselves on the court,” Williams wrote. “They can play with aggression and pump their fists. They can be strong yet beautiful. They can wear what they want and say what they want and kick butt and be proud of it all.”

A victory Monday in Toronto was Williams’ first tour win in a singles match in more than a year.

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want that record. Obviously I do. But day to day, I’m really not thinking about her. If I’m in a Grand Slam final, then yes, I am thinking about that record,” Williams said. “Maybe I thought about it too much, and that didn’t help. The way I see it, I should have had 30-plus Grand Slams.”

But, Williams went on to write, “These days, if I have to choose between building my tennis resume and building my family, I choose the latter.”

“Believe me, I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family. I don’t think it’s fair,” said Williams, who was pregnant when she won the 2017 Australian Open for her last Grand Slam trophy. “If I were a guy, I wouldn’t be writing this because I’d be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labor of expanding our family.”

Williams said she and Ohanian want to have a second baby, and wrote: “I definitely don’t want to be pregnant again as an athlete. I need to be two feet into tennis or two feet out.”