Serena Williams reveals first boyfriend's ghosting act motivated her for success

Former world number one Serena Williams has revealed that she used her first relationship’s bad experience as a source of motivation to become one of the best in the history of sport. The 42-year-old is often regarded as the greatest player in the history of women’s tennis in the Open era in the singles category, having won as many as 23 Grand Slam titles.

Serena was recently quoted in a report about how she used a bad experience in her first relationship to motivate her to achieve what she did in her career. The Michigan-born stated that she always wanted to make her first boyfriend regret ghosting her for the ‘rest of his life’.

"A few days after the US Open final, I'm in DC with my sister,” she said. “I see this guy that I'm dating, so and so. and I stayed at his house for a couple of weeks. It was the first relationship I ever had. I was in my twenties. I go home. He ghosts me. I got ghosted. It wasn't even that serious, but it was like I used that and I made it way more serious than what it was. So when he ghosted me I used that as an opportunity to say, he's going to regret this for the rest of his life. That was just the motivation I needed to go the extra mile.”

Serena ended her professional career in September 2022 to give more time to her family. She won seven Australian Open titles, seven Wimbledon titles, six US Open titles and four French Open titles. To go with that, She also won four gold medals for her country at the Olympics. Three of those gold medals came while playing in the doubles category. In contrast, in the 2012 edition of the mega-event in London, she defeated former world number one Russia’s Maria Sharapova in straight sets with a score of 6-0, 6-1.