Serena Williams: the tennis star’s career – in pictures

Serena Williams is retiring after a 27-year professional tennis career that produced 23 Grand Slam singles titles.

The 40-year-old American “is called by many the greatest of all time,” he said BBC.

The tennis world was quick to pay tribute to Williams. “Her incredible career left a mark in tennis history,” he tweeted Billie Jean King, the former first racket of the world. Another American player, Coco Gaufftweeted that “the impact you have had on me is beyond any words that can be put together and so I say thank you thank you GOAT!”

Writing in GuardianAfua Hirsch said that thanks to Williams and her sister Venus, “I watched young black women excel in even the most hostile spaces on their own terms.”