Serena Williams says she had a benign branchial cyst “the size of a small grapefruit” removed from her neck and “all is OK.”
After more tests, including a biopsy that was negative for cancer, Williams said, her doctors said she should have a procedure.
She showed video of herself in a hospital bed and wrote: “So this is me removing it. I am feeling so grateful, and fortunate everything worked out, and most of all I’m healthy.”
Williams announced her retirement — famously eschewing that term and saying instead she was “evolving” away from professional tennis — shortly before playing in the 2022 U.S. Open, her last tournament.
She won 23 Grand Slam titles in singles, the most by a woman in the sport’s professional era, and another 14 in doubles with her older sister Venus. Serena Williams spent more than 300 weeks at No. 1 in the WTA rankings and collected four Olympic gold medals.