Serena holds off opponent, nerves and retirement to advance to second round of U.S. Open

On the verge of retirement, tennis superstar Serena Williams extended her career for at least another match at the U.S. Open on Monday night.

Everything surrounding the first-round match was based on emotional drama as fans cheered wildly for the 23-time Grand Slam champion from the moment she stepped out on the court.

The introduction for Williams, who donned a shimmery black sequined outfit, was filled with a host of ways she meets the criteria of being a queen of the court: “The Queen of under the lights. The Queen of center stage,” declared the announcer, emphatically.

In the end, while Williams didn’t exactly hold court in a manner befitting a monarch, she performed to an acceptable enough standard to come out on top as royalty should.

Despite looking nothing like the player who once dominated the tour as world No. 1 for a total of 319 non-consecutive weeks, Williams pulled through with a 6-3, 6-3 win over No. 80 ranked Danka Kovinic of Montenegro.

“At this point, honestly, everything is a bonus for me I feel,” said Williams, after the match. “I think every opponent is very difficult. I’ve seen that over the summer. The next one is even more difficult.

“I think it’s good for me just to live in the moment now.”

For her trouble, Williams earned a second-round appointment against No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit of Estonia, who easily bypassed Jaqueline Adina Cristian of Romania 6-3, 6-0.

The Kovinic encounter was Williams’s 107th career match victory at the U.S. Open. She captured the U.S. Open title six times in her career with the first victory coming when she was 17-year-old in 1999.

Clearly not in ideal fitness form, Williams’s game was riddled with too many errors and powered by nervousness through most of the first set.

In that first set, Williams faced 10 break points on her serve, including four in the final game, but only lost her serve twice.

By the start of the second set, Williams was able to settle into the match, especially by improving her movement, which was a severe hindrance in the opening set.

She broke serve at 15-40 in the fifth game of the second set when Kovinic sailed a ball way long to set up her victory. And she closed out the match by breaking Kovinic at love in the final game.

Coco Gauff, another South Floridian, moved onto the second-round with a 6-2, 6-3 win over French qualifier Leolia Jeanjean.

The No. 12 seed, Gauff, who is the No. 1 doubles player in the world, reached her first Grand Slam singles final this year. She lost to world No. 1 Iga Swiatek in that French Open championship match.

In the 70-minute match, Gauff posted eight aces and never offered the No. 149-ranked JeanJean an opportunity to break serve.

Gauff initially said on court she planned on watching Williams’s match on TV, but then reevaluated that decision.

“I actually am going to stay and watch it live,” Gauff said. “As I thought about it, I was, like, ‘I have to watch.’ I’m excited and, you know, it’s not often we watch live matches, to be honest.

“In general, either way, everything that she’s done, I’m sure it’s going to be an emotional night for everyone, for everything she’s done on and off the court, I think you can’t put into words.”

While Williams has said this is likely the final stop of her career, she hesitated to outrightly confirm this is definitely her last tournament.

“Yeah, I’ve been pretty vague about it, right?” she said, after the match with a huge grin. “I’m going to stay vague because you never know.”

Even the short introduction when she came on court on Monday night offered her a comeback strategy in declaring, “If you decide to return, queen, your throne will be waiting.”

After the match concluded, there was a brief on-court celebration where Williams offered the crowd this message to take from her illustrious career.

“It’s so important to give your all no matter what you do, no matter how many obstacles you face,” she said. “I’ve been down and out so many times in the public eye. I’ve had to come back. You just never give up.

“It sounds cliché, but that really means something. No matter what you’re going through out there, I just want people to be inspired by my story.

“I’m from Compton, California, you know? And I made it.”

Only time will tell if Williams will pick up a racket professionally again after this U.S. Open.

But, for now, it appears that somewhere in the next two weeks she will close out her career resume with 23 Grand Slam single titles, 14 Grand Slam doubles titles, one singles and three doubles Olympic gold medals, and an overall 73 career singles titles.

This story was originally published August 30, 2022 at 12:04 AM.