Serena Williams on Monday said she has not retired from tennis and that the chances of her returning are “very high” after she previously indicated that she would step away from the sport after last month’s US Open.
“I am not retired,” Williams said at a conference in San Francisco while promoting her investment company, Serena Ventures.
“The chances (of a return) are very high. You can come to my house, I have a court.”
Williams, 41, said she was “evolving away from tennis” in an essay in August and, while she did not confirm the US Open as her farewell event, she was given lavish tributes before each match in New York and waved an emotional goodbye after losing in the third round. The 23-time Grand Slam champion, who took the tennis world by storm as a teenager and is considered by many the greatest of all time, said not preparing for a tournament after the US Open did not feel natural to her.
“I still haven’t really thought about (retirement),” Williams said.
“But I did wake up the other day and go on the court and (considered) for the first time in my life that I’m not playing for a competition, and it felt really weird.
“It was like the first day of the rest of my life and I’m enjoying it, but I’m still trying to find that balance.”

Nadal to return at Paris
Masters, says coach
Rafa Nadal will return to competition at next week’s Paris Masters before taking his place at the season-ending ATP Finals, coach Carlos Moya said.
Nadal has struggled with injuries this year, capturing his 14th French Open title while playing with pain-killing injections to deal with a chronic foot injury and pulling out of Wimbledon due to an abdominal problem.
Following his defeat to Frances Tiafoe at the US Open in September he said he needed to “fix things” and was unsure about when he would play again.
The Spaniard, who has won a men’s record 22 Grand Slam titles, partnered Roger Federer in a doubles match at the Laver Cup last month before pulling out of the tournament.
He also took time off for the birth of his first child with wife Mery Perello on Oct. 8.
Moya confirmed that Nadal would use the Masters 1000 event in Bercy, which the world number two has never won, as part of his preparations for the ATP’s finale in Turin from Nov. 13-20.
“Before arriving in Turin, you have to play matches in Paris, which are similar,” Moya told IB3 TV.
“Rafa is competitive wherever he is and we go with hope and illusion.”