Serena Williams wins second round match of US Open after beating world No. 2
A 40-year-old underdog in the final days of her storied career, Williams had just upset the world’s second-ranked player, a US Open outcome that seemed doubtful until it became inevitable.
So … Serena, were you surprised?
Williams chuckled as cheers washed over the court.
“I mean, I’m just Serena,” she said.
Williams, playing what could be the last tournament of her career, won Wednesday evening, downing Anett Kontaveit 7-6 (4) 2-6 6-2 in New York.
Williams looked better than in previous matches this year, where she was still trying to shake the rust of a long layoff.
In Kontaveit, however, Williams faced a much sterner test and was undoubtedly the underdog on paper.
“After I lost the second set, I thought, ‘Oh, my goodness, I got to give my best effort because this could be it,'” Williams told ESPN in an on-court, post-match interview.
A boisterous but behaved crowd cheered her every point.
She referred to the long layoff in her interview Wednesday but said, “I love a challenge.”
“I don’t have anything to prove. I don’t have anything to win. And I have absolutely nothing to lose,” she said.
Williams will next face Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round. Tomljanovic, who was playing at the same time as Williams on Wednesday, defeated Russian Evgeniya Rodina 1-6, 6-2, 7-5.
And Williams is not playing just singles; she will open doubles play with her sister Venus Williams on Thursday night.
“I need more matches,” she told ESPN. “I love rising to the challenge. Yeah, I haven’t played many matches, but I’ve been practicing really well. In my last few matches, it just wasn’t coming together. I’m like, ‘This isn’t me.'”
Things have changed since she started playing at the Open, she said.
“I have never liked the word retirement. It doesn’t feel like a modern word to me. I’ve been thinking of this as a transition, but I want to be sensitive about how I use that word, which means something very specific and important to a community of people,” Williams said in the Vogue article published earlier this month.
“Maybe the best word to describe what I’m up to is evolution. I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me,” she said.
At her post-match news conference Monday, Williams was asked if this is definitely her last tournament.
“Yeah, I’ve been pretty vague about it, right?” she said with a smile. “I’m going to stay vague because you never know.”
The opening-round win over Kovinić was the best Williams had looked since making her comeback from injury. She has managed to win just one match since returning to the circuit in June and was unable to get close to the form that helped her win her last grand slam title in 2017.
But Kontaveit, who had said she was excited to play against Williams, encountered a player who showed no signs of wanting to hasten her retirement.
“I think she played really well,” said the Estonian during the post-match news conference. “I mean, I thought I didn’t play a bad…
Read More: Serena Williams wins second round match of US Open after beating world No. 2