Wimbledon: No plans to retire yet for Serena Williams despite first round exit

Serena Williams brushed off any talk of retirement on Tuesday by insisting she is ldquomotivatedrdquo to play at the US Open later this year despite a shattering Wimbledon defeatldquoThe US Open was the place where I won my first Slam itrsquos superspecial Therersquos definitely a lot of motivation to get better and play at homerdquo the 40yearold American saidHarmony Tan is ecstatic after her win over Serena WilliamsWilliams was speaking after losing in her first singles match for a year when she went down 57 61 67 710 to unseeded Harmony Tan the World No115 in the opening round of WimbledonAlso Read Tennis star Emma Raducanu stays true to her commitments rejects millions in sponsorshiplsquoIrsquoll see how I feelrsquoThe 23time major winner who debuted at the All England Club in 1998 refused to speculate on whether or not she will be back at Wimbledon in 2023 ldquoI am just playing for right now Irsquoll see how I feel and go from there Who knows where I will pop uprdquoWilliams walked onto Centre Court for the evening match and quickly looked rusty She was broken in her first service game Williams far below her imperious best and apparently lacking fitness bounced back breaking in the fourth game to level at 22 buoyed by a supportive crowd The pair swapped further breaks but Tan ranked 115th broke again in the 11th game and held her nerve to close out the set 75Williams broke after a mammoth second game of the second set and went on to level the match 61 The American was first to break in the decider but Tan levelled at 33 Williams broke again in the ninth game throwing her arms into the air in jubilation but faltered as she served for the match She faced a match point on her own serve in the 12th game but saved it with a forehand volley taking the contest into a thirdset tiebreakWilliams stepped up a gear winning the first four points as the match under the Wimbledon roof ticked past three hours But still her French opponent was not down and out winning the next five points to edge ahead Williams looking out of breath could not find inspiration netting when facing a second match pointSuperstar SerenaShe finished with 61 winners but 54 unforced errors in the 3hour 11minute evening match ldquoIrsquom so emotional nowrdquo said Tan ldquoShersquos a superstar When I was young I was watching her so many times on the TV ldquoWhen I saw the draw I was really scared Shersquos such a legend I thought if I can win one game two games that would be really good for merdquo23No of Grand Slam singles titles won by Serena WilliamsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever