(FILES) In this file photo taken on July 05, 2003 Serena Williams of the US holds the trophy after defeating Venus Williams of the US in their Ladies Final match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, south London. – Serena Williams’ dreams of a fairytale finish to her glittering career were left in ruins on September 2, 2022, as the tennis icon was sent crashing out of the US Open by Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic. (Photo by ODD ANDERSEN / AFP)

Serena Williams went from learning tennis on public courts in a notorious American gangland neighborhood to becoming a superstar for a generation and perhaps the greatest player in history.

Now, the 40-year-old legend is heading for retirement after almost certainly playing her last match, a three-set defeat to Ajla Tomljanovic at the US Open on Friday.

“I’m ready to be a mom and explore a different version of myself,” she said as she looked ahead to family time with daughter Olympia.

Serena became an African-American icon in a white-dominated sport, winning 23 Grand Slam titles and smashing aside milestones with a determination as powerful as the raw energy that defines her shotmaking magic.

Serena and sister Venus, a seven-time Grand Slam winner, were executive producers on the movie “King Richard” that told the Hollywood fairytale of them being taught tennis by father Richard Williams while growing up on the tough streets of Compton, California.

“I am still just that girl with the racquet and a dream and I’m just playing for that,” Williams said after a 2013 US Open title.

She wound up living the dream as she won seven Australian Open titles, three French Opens, seven Wimbledon crowns and six US Opens to stand agonisngly just one shy of matching the all-time record for Slam singles titles set by Margaret Court.

Serena won her first Grand Slam title at the 1999 US Open at age 17 and in 2017 captured her 23rd and most recent major title at the Australian Open while pregnant with Olympia.

(FILES) In this file photo taken on January 28, 2021 Serena Williams (L) of the US and her husband Alexis Ohanian talk to their daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr during the ‘A Day at the Drive’ exhibition tournament in Adelaide. (Photo by Brenton Edwards / AFP)-

She gave birth to her daughter in September 2017 and spent six weeks bedridden after a pulmonary embolism, but battled back to make her return to competition five months later in Fed Cup doubles alongside Venus.

Williams, whose husband is Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, twice completed a “Serena Slam” by winning all four major titles in a row. She did it in 2002-2003 starting with the 2002 French Open and again in 2014-15 starting with the 2014 US Open.

Serena Williams of the US, playing with Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur, returns the ball to Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching during their women’s doubles quarter final tennis match on day four of the Eastbourne International tennis tournament in Eastbourne, southern England on June 22, 2022. (Photo by Glyn KIRK / AFP)

She had a chance to complete a calendar-year Grand Slam in 2015 but was upset by Italy’s Roberta Vinci in the US Open semi-finals.

“I never really want to focus on the numbers,” Williams said. “I started playing tennis not to be the greatest but just because I had a racquet and a dream. Now people are saying I could be (the greatest), but for me, I’m just not there yet.

“People like Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf, they are just, to me, the ultimate icons in the history of women’s tennis.”

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 01: Serena Williams of the United States serves the ball during her Women’s Singles first round match against Kristie Ahn of the United States on Day Two of the 2020 US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on September 1, 2020 in the Queens borough of New York City. Al Bello/Getty Images/AFP
AL BELLO / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP

Williams brought a style and power to her game, at times her fashion designs distracting from her dazzling on-court efforts.

She won the most recent of her 73 career WTA titles in January 2020 at the Auckland Open, her only crown as a mother.

Four times Williams had a chance to equal Court’s all-time record but lost in the 2018 and 2019 finals at both Wimbledon and the US Open.

Serena Williams of the United States serves gets ready by her chair before her match against Johanna Konta of Great Britain during Day 2 of the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic at Spartan Tennis Complex on July 31, 2018 in San Jose, California. Ezra Shaw/Getty Images/AFP
EZRA SHAW / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP

– Struggles and setbacks –
She battled through struggles as well. Serena’s half-sister, Yetunde Price, was fatally shot in 2003 at age 31 by a gang member in their hometown of Compton. She had been Serena’s personal assistant.

After Williams cut her foot at a German restaurant days following her 2010 Wimbledon triumph, she needed two surgeries and spent 20 weeks in a walking cast, a situation she blamed for causing blood clots in her lungs in 2011 that threatened her life. She missed three major events and was out for almost a year.

USA’s Serena Williams gestures to the audience after losing against Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic during their 2022 US Open Tennis tournament women’s singles third round match at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York, on September 2, 2022. (Photo by COREY SIPKIN / AFP)

“(Doctors) said I had clots in both lungs. A lot of people die from that because you don’t recognize it,” Williams said in 2011.

“I couldn’t breathe, I honestly just thought I was out of shape. A couple more days and it would not have been good. It could have possibly been career-ending.

“Being at the top of your game, having to have something like that happen randomly was tough, and it really makes me appreciate things.”

Williams credited her success to the work by her father and stuck by him even after her parents split up.

“I wouldn’t have won a single title without him and without his backing,” said Williams. “He’s a great coach. He’s just so innovative.

“He built my game and my sister’s game. He gave us a good foundation. It was solid and it wasn’t weak, so we were always able to grow our game.”

(FILES) In this file photo taken on June 08, 2002 US Serena Williams (L) and her sister and opponent Venus Williams hold Roland Garros trophies, in Paris, at the end of the Roland Garros French Open women’s final match. (Photo by ANDRE DURAND / AFP)

Richard Williams would let other children taunt his daughters as they practiced.

“In order to be successful you must prepare for the unexpected — and I wanted to prepare for that,” he told CNN in 2015. “Criticism can bring the best out of you.”