"I thought for sure I'd be retired at 28, 29"- When 37-year-old Serena Williams was surprised at her own longevity after reaching US Open final

Ahead of the 2019 US Open final, the then-37-year-old Serena WIlliams stated that she earlier thought she would have retired before the age of 30.

Williams won her maiden Grand Slam singles title at the 1999 US Open, aged 17. In 2019, she reached her ninth final at the hard-court Major with wins over Maria Sharapova, Caty McNally, Karolina Muchova, Petra Martic, Wang Qiang, and Elina Svitolina.

This was Williams' third Major final after giving birth to her daughter, Olympia. In an interview ahead of the title clash in 2019, Williams said that she was happy about reaching a few Grand Slam finals after becoming a mother.

"Yeah, I think it's cool that I've been in more finals than I think anyone on tour after being pregnant. I think that's kind of awesome. That's currently on tour," the American said.

"I kind of look at it that way because it's not easy to go through what I did and come back, and so fast. To keep playing, to also not be 20 years old, yeah, I'm pretty proud of myself," she added.

Williams also said that when she won her first Grand Slam at the age of 17, she would not have believed it if someone told her she would still be playing 20 years later.

"I would definitely not have believed them. At 17 I thought for sure I'd be retired at 28, 29, living my life. So, yeah, I would have thought it was a sick joke," Serena Williams said.

The American eventually lost the 2019 US Open final 6-3, 7-5 to Bianca Andreescu. This was her last Major title clash and she retired from tennis three years later.

Serena Williams won ten Grand Slam singles after turning 30

Serena Williams during her last match at the 2022 US Open

Serena Williams won 23 Grand Slam singles titles throughout her career, an Open Era record she shares with Novak Djokovic. Ten of her Major triumphs came after she turned 30, which is more than any other woman in tennis history. This includes two titles at the Australian Open and French Open, and three triumphs each at Wimbledon and the US Open.

From a Grand Slam perspective, Williams' best singles year after turning 30 came in 2015 when she won the first three Majors of the year, but missed out on the US Open. Her last Major singles triumph came at the 2017 Australian Open, when she beat her sister Venus Williams in the final.

Apart from singles, Serena Williams also won two women's doubles Grand Slam titles after turning 30 at Wimbledon in 2012 and 2016.