Tennis powerhouse Venus Williams says she does not plan to hang up her tennis racket just yet even though her lengthy career in professional tennis has left her with little room for anything else.

She declared: “As an athlete, as a tennis player, you’re playing 10 months a year what balance is that?”

Since going professional back in 1994, Williams has clinched seven Grand Slam singles triumphs, five of which came at Wimbledon, and even though she’s now 44, last year marked her 24th appearance at the US Open.

Her last prominent competition was at the Miami Open in March and Venus says with a laugh: “Then I took some time off the court to do all kinds of things I’m like, I need to go back to tennis so I can have some time to myself!”

When not serving aces on the court, Venus juggles roles as a savvy entrepreneur with an interior design company and Happy Viking, her very own plant-based protein shake enterprise. June saw her strutting down the catwalk during the Vogue World show in Paris flaunting a bespoke costume crafted from recycled tennis gear.

Reflecting on her recent hiatus from tennis, Williams observed: “I think even this year I definitely pushed too hard, and it left me feeling very unmotivated, even though I had stuff to do.”

She admitted it was uncharted territory for her and noted it became “a big learning experience for me”, prompting retrospective thoughts on possible improvements.

She said: “That’s how I came up with [the idea] that, OK, I’ve got to find a moment in every day for some kind of balance, instead of waiting for this elusive moment somewhere off in the future that’s quite foggy. Well, guess what? You don’t have to wait. You can find it today.”

Despite juggling multiple projects, Williams reassured her fans by stating: “I’m not done with the racket yet.”

She further explained: “At this point, It’s about picking and choosing places I want to be. Last year I really wanted to play in Miami home because I hadn’t played there in like five years.

“It’s nice to be in a place where I can pick and choose, but my game is always at a high level. Even if I’m not on tour, I always keep my game quite high.”

The absence of Williams and her sister, Serena, was felt at this year’s Wimbledon Championships – the first since 1996 without either sister in the women’s singles draw.

Despite their competitive nature, the sisters remain close, even though Williams joked about how “it’s not nice for the little sister to beat the older sister all the time!”

For Williams, tennis “never gets old”. She said: “I always watch the tournaments as much as I can it’s hard to sit in front of the TV, and a lot of times by the time I have time at like 11pm it’s a replay, but it’s still fun to watch all the competition.”

But happiness transcends her Grand Slam victories, she believes. “Number one is happiness. If you are not happy, nothing feels good nothing feels successful or happy when you are sad inside.”

Her latest publication, Strive: 8 Steps To Train For Success, echoes her life philosophy. It offers a holistic guide on how to achieve success by focusing on various aspects of life, from diet and exercise to social circles and mental health.

Williams also identifies health as a critical component of success, asserting: “Being able to live your dreams or have that opportunity to go for it, that’s a huge part of happiness and wellness. I think a lot of people really overlook that.”

Her own journey of battling an autoimmune disorder put these beliefs into stark perspective. A decade ago, Williams was diagnosed with Sjogren’s syndrome, a condition the NHS explains affects ‘a condition that affects parts of the body that produce fluids’.

Sharing her story in Strive, Williams recalls her struggle to come to terms with the disease: “Finding out I had an incurable autoimmune disorder one that flares up unexpectedly, causing pain, numbness, and fatigue was one of the hardest things to accept, especially when my career expects me to be at my physical best.”

Despite the challenges, Williams today can look back with her well-known wit. She chuckles, “Who gets diagnosed with a disease that starts with ‘S’ and ‘J’, you know? First of all, how do I pronounce this?

“It definitely made me look at things differently. Even when it was hard to look at things differently, just to focus on what I could accomplish instead of what I couldn’t.”

Williams admits the journey was challenging but reveals: “It definitely made me grateful for what health I had. I think it’s such an important message today, especially in this day and age where materialism, in some cases, has overrun our thoughts.”

“We’re seeing people who are appearing to live amazing lives on social media, they’re travelling places on private planes, they’re showing you the things they have all that stuff doesn’t matter.

“When you take that out of the equation, you realise you didn’t need much at all to be happy and to be able to appreciate the things that you have and the things that are important and appreciate something every day.”

“But this also means ‘appreciating yourself’. We can be so hard on ourselves we’re always our biggest critics, and sometimes we forget to appreciate ourselves.

“Obviously, that can go in the opposite direction, where you appreciate yourself too much, then you can not achieve what you should because you haven’t pushed yourself but it’s so important to be your biggest cheerleader.”

Elite athletes are masters of mindset tuning, and Williams is no exception. She acknowledges the relentless pursuit of excellence, saying: “constantly looking at everything that you’re doing for improvement.

“I could definitely walk off the court unhappy with everything, and that mentality can only take you to a place where maybe you’re not feeling good about what you need to achieve.”

Williams also notes the psychological edge in tennis: “At the end of the day, the person who wins the match in tennis is the one who feels good about what they’re doing. Even if you’re not the best player, but you feel good, you can really play freely and achieve what you need to.

“Sometimes even that’s a daily thing on the court remembering that yes, you missed that one shot, but look at the other 20 you made. It’s a daily practice.”

Venus Williams’ book, Strive: 8 Steps To Train For Success, published by Piatkus and priced at £22, is out now.