Serena Williams insists she has no plans to retire from tennis

Former women's singles World No 1 tennis player Serena Williams insists that she has no plans to retire from the sport despite her disappointing form in recent months. Serena, who has 22 Grand Slam titles to her credit, is considered one of best players in the history of the sport.

Williams, who was recently revealed to be the highest earning female athlete in the world with annual earnings of £6.7m, started the year well by winning the 2016 Wimbledon Championships to equal the open-era record of 22 titles held by Steffi Graf but since then she has struggled with injury and form issues.

The 35-year-old suffered a shock third round exit in the 2016 Rio Olympics in the third round to Elina Svitolina and was also knocked out of the US Open in the semi-final to Karolina Pliskova. Williams has also suffered from various injury issues this year, the most recent being the inflammation in her shoulder which forced her to pull out of the Rogers Cup.

"If I'm losing I'm going to figure out a way to win, so I can't sit here and say that would be it. Health issues can be tough. I have been dealing with a lot of health issues since Wimbledon and that has been really frustrating. I told Venus that it ruined my Olympics. I was just really sad because I worked so hard to play the Olympics and I wouldn't even play. I showed up and I just couldn't even play," Williams said, as quoted by Sky Sports.

"I don't know what it is inside me but I always want to win. Second is a loss for me. For me if you are not first you are last and I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing, but when I do eventually end my career I want to know that I always did the best that I could and I wasn't happy or satisfied with second or third place," the world number two added.

Williams is currently taking some time off from the game and it is possible that she may not compete again this year.