Serena Williams' U.S. Open Loss: Oprah, Tiger Woods & More React

Tennis' G.O.A.T. whitethorn not beryllium gone forever.

Serena Williams whitethorn person precocious retired from the sport, but the jock admitted she's not opposed to returning astatine immoderate clip successful the future.

"I consciousness similar if I privation to travel back, I decidedly tin inactive travel back," she told Bradley Cooper during an A+E Networks and the History Channel History Talks lawsuit successful Washington D.C. connected Sept. 24, according to Variety.

For now, Serena, 40, is comfy with her determination to bent up her racquet, explaining she "just needed to stop."

"I ever said I wanted to halt erstwhile I'm playing truly bully tennis and winning and beating bully players," she said. "For me, it's truly astir things I privation to bash spiritually and spending clip with my girl and family."

Serena welcomed girl Olympia in 2017 with hubby Alexis Ohanian.

"As a super hands-on mom, I can't archer you however hard it was. I mislaid truthful galore matches aft I had Olympia due to the fact that it was truthful hard to beryllium connected the court," she continued. "I consciousness similar I've fixed truthful overmuch of my beingness to tennis, my full life, that it's time to bash thing different for maine and besides enactment connected different things."

"I person ne'er liked the word retirement," she wrote successful a screen communicative for Vogue's September 2022 issue. "It doesn't consciousness similar a modern connection to me. I've been reasoning of this arsenic a transition, but I privation to beryllium delicate astir however I usage that word, which means thing precise circumstantial and important to a assemblage of people. Maybe the champion connection to picture what I'm up to is evolution. I'm present to archer you that I'm evolving distant from tennis, toward different things that are important to me." 

She continued, "There is nary happiness successful this taxable for me. I cognize it's not the accustomed happening to say, but I consciousness a large woody of pain. It's the hardest happening that I could ever imagine. I hatred it. I hatred that I person to beryllium astatine this crossroads. I support saying to myself, I privation it could beryllium casual for me, but it's not. I'm torn: I don't privation it to beryllium over, but astatine the aforesaid clip I'm acceptable for what's next."

However, conscionable days later, she implied that determination may beryllium anticipation for her instrumentality to the game aft Jimmy Fallon asked if she would ever "pull a Tom Brady" and unretire. 

"You cognize what? Tom Brady started an astonishing trend," she shared connected The Tonight Show Sept. 13. "That's what I'm gonna say."