Serena Williams teases tennis comeback, Tom Brady style

NFL superstar Tom Brady famously "unretired" just 40 days after initially announcing his retirement in February earlier this year. He is now well into his 23rd season in the NFL, and it seems that tennis legend Serena Williams may follow his example.

Last September, it was Serena's turn to announce that she is finally calling time on her professional tennis career. She played her last competitive match in Flushing Meadows in New York at the US Open, but promised that she would not completely distance herself from the world of tennis.

Now, just over a month later. Serena shocked fans when she said that she is "not retired."

The 23-time Grand Slam champion made the comment during an appearance at the TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco. According to Marca, she said: "The chances [of me returning] are very high, You can come to my house and [see]. I have a court."

The comment came as a surprise especially after the tennis community paid an emotional tribute to Serena after she bowed out of what was believed to have been her final competitive match. She lost to Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round of the US Open, and was met with a standing ovation and lot of tears from the arena that was full to the brim.

Fans expected her to focus more on her businesses under investment company Serena Ventures. However, she claimed that having the company is not necessarily connected to her retirement. She said that running the company and professional tennis were on entirely different timelines in her life. "I didn't even think about the whole retirement, I started this company a while ago, so I just jumped right into that."

She then went on to say that while she had stopped competing on the professional tennis tour, it does not mean that he has dropped her racket. In fact, she hinted that she is still on-court on a regular basis. She also shared that for now, she is enjoying being retired but is still adjusting.

"I did go on the court the other day and [realized] for the first time in my life that I'm not playing for a competition and that felt very weird. It was like the first day of the rest of my life, and so far, I am enjoying it. But I'm still trying to find that balance," she said.

Sha also claims that she would rather think of it as a "transition" rather than retirement. "Maybe the best word to describe what I'm up to is evolution," she added.

Her older sister Venus had been rooting for her to return almost as soon as she announced her retirement. Her fans will surely be delighted to see her back on court, but for now it remains to be seen if she will indeed follow the example set by Brady.