Tennis

 Tennis great Serena Williams announced she plans to retire, saying in an essay that the “countdown” to her moving away from her tennis career has started.  In a Vogue magazine essay published Tuesday, the seven-time Wimbledon winner said she is “evolving” away from tennis toward “other things that are important to me.”  After tennis, Williams said she plans to focus on growing her family with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and her venture capital firm, Serena Ventures, as well as her “spiritual goals” and discovering a “different, but just (as) exciting Serena.”  In her essay, Williams said she is expecting to play the U.S. Open in New York, which begins at the end of the month.  Williams is playing this week in Toronto, at a hard-court tournament that leads into the U.S. Open, the year’s last Grand Slam event, which begins in New York on Aug. 29.