Serena Williams won’t say whether she’s planning a return to professional tennis, and it’s safe to say she is tired of being asked about it.
Williams, 44, appeared on the Wednesday, January 28 episode of Today to discuss her upcoming Super Bowl commercial for Ro and her weight loss journey. During the interview, anchor Savannah Guthrie asked about the former World No. 1 re-entering the WTA’s drug testing pool in December 2025, which some saw as a precursor to a potential return.
“I mean, really? Are you asking this on the Today show? Oh my gosh,” an exasperated Williams replied.
Guthrie, 54, stood her ground and pressed on.
“Yes I am,” she replied. “They’d kill me if I didn’t — tennis nation, all your fans.”
When Williams, who stepped away from tennis in 2022 without officially retiring, said “oh my goodness,” Guthrie asked if that meant “no.”
“Is that a no?” Williams asked, letting out a chuckle as producers off camera could be heard laughing as well. “All the people on your set are laughing. This is distracting. You’re distracting us over there.”
“I’m just having fun and enjoying my life right now,” Williams added.
When Guthrie pointed out that Williams’ answer was neither a yes nor a no, she replied, “I’m just gonna see what happens.”
“That’s a ‘maybe’ to me,” Guthrie interjected, as Williams quickly shot her down.
“That’s not a maybe,” she insisted.
When news first broke last year that Williams had re-entered the drug testing pool, she took to X and gave a more concrete answer about her future.
“Omg yall I’m NOT coming back,” she wrote. “This wildfire is crazy.”
Just one day before, Porter Magazine published an interview with Williams in which she admitted she was struggling to adjust to life as a former athlete.
“No matter how prepared you are to retire, and particularly from doing something every day at such a high level, it’s hard,” she said. “I really prepped myself the best way I could, but it’s something that’s still a little difficult.”
In her newfound free time, however, Williams has been able to fully embrace motherhood. (She and husband Alexis Ohanian share daughters Olympia, 8, and Adira, 2.)
In November 2025, Williams shared a series of photos via Instagram with Adira as she gave her daughter her first tennis lessons.
“This is me sharing my passion for tennis with my youngest daughter,” she wrote in the caption.
While Williams has been eager to share her passion, she has no intention of forcing the game onto either of her daughters.
“I would hate her to have to deal with comparisons or expectations,” Williams said of Olympia in a 2018 interview with Vogue. “It’s so much work, and I’ve given up so much. I don’t regret it, but it’s like Sliding Doors: Go through a different door and lead a different life. I’d like her to have a normal life. I didn’t have that.”
She continued, “I think sometimes women limit themselves. I’m not sure why we think that way, but I know that we’re sometimes taught to not dream as big as men, not to believe we can be a president or a CEO, when in the same household, a male child is told he can be anything he wants. I’m so glad I had a daughter. I want to teach her that there are no limits.”
