Serena Williams is one of the greatest tennis players of all time. The holder of 23 Grand Slam singles titles, she also has Olympic gold medals and Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and US Open wins under her belt.
In recent weeks, the athlete, 40, has spoken openly about the prospect of retiring from tennis to focus on other pursuits.
"I love to play tennis, but I know I can't do it for the rest of my life," she told Bloomerang media ahead of the Super Bowl. "I'm ready for that day. I've been preparing for that day for more than a decade. I think it's very important to always have a plan, and I've always had a plan.
"It's a game of balance and some days are more difficult than others. It's definitely more difficult because I'm a mother and a wife and I want to be able to spend time with my family, I want to be the best mother."
Off the court, Williams has built a fashion empire. She is behind two fashion lines, Serena and S by Serena, and has had a number of partnerships with sporting brands, including Nike. For S by Serena, she has designed comfortable loungewear, dresses, coats and jackets and accessories, including face masks, hoods and hair accessories.
In 2018, Meghan Markle wore one of Williams's Serena blazers, much to her delight.
Speaking about her love of fashion in 2019, she said: "My biggest joy is that I know that I’m doing something that I’ve always wanted to do, that I always dreamed of doing.
"I went to fashion school back in the early 2000s. This didn’t just pop up for me. It’s something I’ve literally been doing and designing for my whole life."
Williams often wears her own designs on the red carpet, but has also been known to turn to designs by Gucci, Calvin Klein, Armani and Burberry. Versace is a favourite of Williams's, and a brand she has sported designs by for more than one Met Gala appearance and for the 2018 wedding of her friend, Meghan Markle, to Prince Harry.
Vera Wang, Giambattista Valli, Tom Ford, and Roberto Cavalli are also brands favoured by the sportswoman.
While major fashion houses delight in dressing Williams, she also turns to smaller boutique ateliers for red carpet appearances. To attend the November premiere of King Richard, she wore a statement leotard piece by Georgian designer David Koma.
She has also been known to turn to bridal designers for red carpet events, including Canadian brand Ines Di Santo and Israeli fashion house Galia Lahav, who dressed her for the Vanity Fair Oscars after-parties in 2015 and 2016.
For her 2017 wedding to technology entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian, she chose a design by Alexander McQueen. The dress had a sweetheart neckline and was finished with a cape, and made headlines as the most expensive wedding dress of all time and cost $3.5 million, according to Brides magazine.
"I flew to London to meet with Sarah and ended up falling in love with the ball gown silhouette, which is completely the opposite of what I ever thought I would choose for myself," Williams told Vogue. "I loved the idea of doing a really spectacular ball gown, and it has turned out to be such an incredibly special piece."
The dress was one of three she wore for her New Orleans nuptials, with the second two by Versace. One was a beaded and feathered gown with a cape and the second was a fitted mini dress, designed for dancing.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
EA Sports FC 26
Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S
Rating: 3/5
The alternatives
• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.
• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.
• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.
• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.
• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.
Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
The Birkin bag is made by Hermès.
It is named after actress and singer Jane Birkin
Noone from Hermès will go on record to say how much a new Birkin costs, how long one would have to wait to get one, and how many bags are actually made each year.
The biog
First Job: Abu Dhabi Department of Petroleum in 1974
Current role: Chairperson of Al Maskari Holding since 2008
Career high: Regularly cited on Forbes list of 100 most powerful Arab Businesswomen
Achievement: Helped establish Al Maskari Medical Centre in 1969 in Abu Dhabi’s Western Region
Future plan: Will now concentrate on her charitable work
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Brief scoreline:
Wolves 3
Neves 28', Doherty 37', Jota 45' 2
Arsenal 1
Papastathopoulos 80'
How Sputnik V works
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
