Serena Williams' long and illustrious tennis career is drawing to a close after the American confirmed on Tuesday that the countdown has begun.
Following a long piece in Vogue, Williams wrote of her plan to "move in a different direction" after "these next few weeks", suggesting the US Open – which begins in late August – will be her last outing.
Thanks to her success and brilliance on the court, Williams has become synonymous with tennis and is regarded by many as the greatest the women's sport has ever seen.
Yet, her seemingly imminent retirement cannot be seen as a shock. At the age of 40, Williams has persisted with tennis far longer than most do, and that is testament to her quality and enduring desire for success.
With Williams now reaching the end, Stats Perform takes a look at the key facts, stats and figures of her career; in other words, Serena's remarkable legacy.
Twenty-three… and counting?
Of course, the headline fact for Williams' career is her grand slam titles count.
She has won 23, which is more than anyone else in the Open era.
But she's still got one target left: matching Margaret Court. The Australian's 24 grand slam successes include nine won before the Open era began in 1968, though her overall total has been the benchmark ever since she claimed her final crown at the US Open in 1975.
Clearly, victory for Williams at Flushing Meadows would be the perfect farewell.
The finals hurdle
Even if Williams only reaches the championship match next month, she'll still be equalling a different record.
Assuming she does compete in Queens, Williams heads into the US Open having played in 33 grand slam finals, one more than Martina Navratilova.
But Chris Evert (34) sits out in front, and that record will remain hers for many, many years if Williams cannot reach the finale at Flushing Meadows.
Top of the pile
It's been a while now since Williams was last the highest-ranked player in the world, but in a way that only further highlights how remarkable her career has been.
She's spent 319 weeks ranked as world number one, which is behind only Steffi Graf (377) and Navratilova (332).
While many might have expected Williams to have been top of the pile for even longer, it's worth remembering how she's spent time out due to injuries and pregnancy, with her general involvement in top-level tennis decreasing after 2014 when she played 16 tournaments – in 2016 that halved to eight, and during no year since has she played in more.
Additionally, some will also be surprised to learn she actually only finished the year as the top-ranked female player five times. Nevertheless, that's still third to only Graf (eight) and Navratilova (seven).
Go hard or go home
Such has been Williams' quality, she was always considered a threat regardless of the surface – she's won each grand slam at least three times.
But there's no denying she was at her most lethal on hard courts.
She has won 48 WTA Tour-level titles on hard courts, which is 11 more than anyone else (Graf) in the Open era.
Those 48 come from a grand total of 73 across all surfaces, leaving her ranked fifth behind Navratilova (167), Evert (157), Graf (107) and Court (92).
Surface to say…
Williams' comfort on hard courts goes even further than that.
She's won 539 matches on the surface, making her one of just two female players to surpass 500 victories on one specific ground type.
Navratilova (600 on carpet) is the only other player to achieve the feat, with Serena's sister Venus (498 on hard) the closest to the 23-time grand slam champion.
The grass is greener
Despite that unrivalled excellence, hard courts may not be the surface many feel to be most synonymous with Williams, however.
Wimbledon is the tournament that would appear to be her favourite.
She's reached the final at SW19 11 times. Only Navratilova can better that record for the most finals at one tournament – though it's worth saying she contested the WTA Finals and Chicago 14 times each, Eastbourne 13 times and 12 at Wimbledon.
Novak Djokovic fights back to book place in French Open semi-finals
Novak Djokovic lost his first set of the French Open but battled back to defeat Karen Khachanov and move through to the semi-finals.
The third seed looked like he could be in trouble when he was pushed to a second-set tie-break after dropping the opener, but he won seven straight points and pulled away to win 4-6 7-6 (0) 6-2 6-4.
Djokovic said: “He was the better player for most of the first two sets. I was struggling to find my rhythm. I came into the match a bit sluggish, but I played a perfect tie-break and then played a couple of levels higher.
“It’s a big fight, it’s something that you expect, quarter-finals of a grand slam. You’re not going to have your victories handed over to you. I’m happy to overcome this big challenge.”
Djokovic struggled to deal with the power game of Russian Khachanov in the opening set and made some unexpected errors as he dropped serve in the fifth game.
Khachanov, who made the semi-finals at both the US Open and Australian Open, had another chance to break in the ninth game and, although Djokovic managed to hold this time, his opponent comfortably served out the set.
The momentum slowly began to switch in the second set as Djokovic, who was engaging in repeated dialogue with his support camp, began to apply some pressure to the Khachanov serve.
He did not manage to break but, not for the first time this fortnight, played a flawless tie-break and then benefited from a lucky netcord to win a long opening game of the third set on the Khachanov serve.
The only blip after that came with a loose game that saw him lose his break advantage at 4-3 in the fourth set, but Djokovic regained it straight away and served out the victory.
The Serbian is through to his 45th slam semi-final, one behind Roger Federer and seven adrift of Chris Evert’s all-time record, and now only two victories away from a record 23rd slam title.
Teenager Isabelle Lacy knocks out Madison Brengle for biggest win of career
British teenager Isabelle Lacy claimed the biggest win of her fledgling career by knocking out third seed Madison Brengle at the Lexus Surbiton Trophy.
The 16-year-old came through qualifying and overcame a rankings gap of more than 750 places to see off American Brengle 7-6 (2) 5-7 6-1.
Brengle has been as high as 35 in the world and, although aged 33 she is now down at 95, this was a hugely impressive performance from Lacy, who already has a wild card into Wimbledon qualifying courtesy of winning the British Under-18 title.
A few more performances like this one may just see that upgraded to a full wild card.
Dan Evans took a wild card into the men’s event after his first-round loss at the French Open and he joined Andy Murray in round two with a 6-4 6-4 victory over Australian James McCabe.
Katie Boulter and Katie Swan were both convincing winners on the women’s side – Boulter beating Olivia Gadecki of Australia 6-2 6-1 while Swan saw off Canada’s Carol Zhao 6-2 6-0.
Eden Silva and Sonay Kartal also reached round two but Heather Watson was edged out 2-6 7-6 (3) 7-6 (6) by Australian Maddison Inglis and there were losses for Mark Whitehouse, Billy Harris, Dan Cox and Harry Wendelken on the men’s side.
Aryna Sabalenka: I don’t support war so I don’t support Alexander Lukashenko
Aryna Sabalenka came out against Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko after returning to the French Open press room and facing another barrage of off-court questions.
The Australian Open champion refused to speak to the general tennis press after her third and fourth-round matches following tense exchanges with a Ukrainian journalist.
She changed that stance after beating Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina 6-4 6-4 in the quarter-finals amid more boos from the Roland Garros crowd and immediately was pressed further on her political stance.
Sabalenka has previously been pictured with Lukashenko and, asked if she still supported him, the 25-year-old said: “It’s a tough question. I don’t support war, meaning I don’t support Lukashenko right now.”
Sabalenka said she had struggled to sleep after the incidents in the previous press conferences, which she claimed left her feeling unsafe, but did not regret her decision to step away from the press room.
“I always really respect press conferences,” she said. “I’m always open in my answers. I really felt bad not coming here. I couldn’t sleep. Like all those bad feelings were in my head.
“I don’t regret the decisions. I felt really disrespected, and I felt really bad. I mean, grand slam, it’s enough pressure to handle, and I just tried to focus on myself, on my game.
“I’m always open. You can ask whatever you want. You will get all the information. But, in the last press conference, I felt like my press conference became a political TV show, and I’m not an expert in politics. I’m just a tennis player.”
Sabalenka also came under scrutiny for her conduct at the end of the match against Svitolina.
Ukrainian players have been resolute in their stance of not shaking hands with Russian and Belarusian opponents but Sabalenka stood at the net apparently waiting for the gesture she must have known would not come.
Svitolina, who had given a thumbs up to previous Russian opponents Anna Blinkova and Daria Kasatkina, walked straight past her and was loudly booed, with more jeers accompanying her as she walked off court.
Svitolina was distinctly unimpressed, saying: “I don’t know what she was waiting (for), because my statements were clear enough about the handshake.
“My initial reaction was like, ‘What are you doing?’ I made multiple statements that I’m not shaking hands, and she played obviously Marta (Kostyuk) as well the first round. So it’s quite simple.”
Asked if she felt Sabalenka had inflamed the situation, Svitolina said: “Yeah, I think so, unfortunately.”
The Belarusian insisted it had not been deliberate, though, saying: “It just was an instinct like I always do after all my matches.”
On the reaction, Sabalenka added: “I think she didn’t deserve all this boos. I’m giving such a big respect to her, what she’s doing after giving birth. It’s impressive and I’m really impressed by what she’s doing.”
In her first grand slam since the birth of daughter Skai last October, Svitolina has enjoyed one of her best grand slams.
A handful of Ukraine flags were evident among a sparse crowd as the match began and Svitolina traded game for game until Sabalenka forced a first break point at 4-4 and crunched away a return off a weak second serve.
Svitolina made a fast start to the second set, moving 2-0 ahead, but could not convert a game point in the next game and Sabalenka began to really make her extra power count, moving into a 4-2 lead.
With the patrons now having finished their lunch and fully engaged, they tried to will Svitolina – who was watched by husband Gael Monfils – into a comeback, but Sabalenka held her nerve.
Despite the defeat, it has been a brilliant fortnight for Svitolina, who will return to the top 100 next week.
“This year was difficult and different on the court, off the court, with you guys here, with your difficult questions, and overcoming difficulties, as well,” she said.
“Even though I’m sitting here dealing with it today, I feel like I won in so many ways.”
Sabalenka is not the only player to have skipped press conferences this tournament, and Svitolina added: “Definitely, I think it should be equal for everyone.
“I faced difficulty also with the question about Novak (Djokovic), about his statement about Kosovo. So I’m not escaping. I have my strong position and I’m vocal about that. I’m not going to try to (make people like me) by betraying my strong belief and the strongest position for my country.”
In the last four, Sabalenka will meet unseeded Karolina Muchova, who earlier defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5 6-2 to reach her second grand slam semi-final.
Muchova, 26, suffered an abdominal injury during her run to the semis at the Australian Open that kept her out for seven months and she was ranked outside the top 200 as recently as September.
With her run here, Muchova is set to return to the top 20, and she said: “It’s been an incredible two weeks and I’m just glad I’m still in the competition.”
Pavlyuchenkova has also found form here after knee surgery kept her out for most of last season but the 2021 runner-up is now set to miss the grass-court season because her ranking was not high enough to get her into Wimbledon.
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