Serena Williams' retirement put off as she wins first-round match at U.S. Open
Maybe it was her black warm-up cape. Or maybe it was her diamond-encrusted sneakers. Or just maybe it was just the fact that Serena Williams wasn’t ready to say goodbye.
Whatever the impetus, the 40-year-old Williams was able to summon her superpowers when she needed them most Monday night.
In what had to be one of the most anticipated first-round matches in the history of the U.S. Open, Williams defeated Danka Kovinic of Montenegro, 6-3, 6-3.
The win pushes off Williams’ retirement at least two more days. Next up is No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit, who won in straight sets earlier Monday.
Widely considered the best woman ever to play the game, Williams set off a mad ticket rush when she announced this month in a told-to essay in Vogue magazine that this year’s U.S. Open likely would be the final tournament of her career.
A wide array of celebrities, including former President Bill Clinton, Spike Lee, Queen Latifah, Dr. Ruth, Vera Wang and Mike Tyson, were at Arthur Ashe Stadium to cheer her on. A record crowd of nearly 24,000 attended the event.
“The crowd was crazy,” Williams said in her on-court postmatch interview. “Really helped pull me through.”
Heading into the match, it was hard to predict how Williams would play.
She did not compete for a full year after getting injured in the first round of Wimbledon last year. When she returned at Wimbledon this year, she lost in the first round. In the three matches she has played since then, she has won only once and most recently lost in the first round of the Western & Southern Open.
Williams got off to a shaky start in a first set that was far from pretty and featured a number of errors and double faults by both players.
The match appeared to turn midway through the set. With Kovinic serving to go up 4-2, Williams hit a shaky backhand that looked as if it was going long. Kovinic looked upset when it was not called out and a replay showed it was just on the line.
Williams took advantage of her rattled opponent and won three straight games to take the set.
It’s hard not to imagine that Kovinic wasn’t rattled earlier, especially after Williams’ dramatic entrance in the arena. Wearing an all-black outfit and swirling warm-up cape, Williams got a standing ovation from the crowd. In a predictable lack of understatement, Lee was brought out for the coin toss at the start of the match.
Williams had more than 100 family and friends on hand to witness the win, including Vogue editor Anna Wintour, her father, Richard, her sister, Venus, and her daughter, Olympia, who was wearing the sort of white beads in her hair that Williams wore when she won her first U.S. Open championship in 1999.
That clear-eyed 17-year-old is now a 40-year-old multimillionaire looking to make one final stand at the tournament that has meant so much to her over the years, the tournament where she has won five of her 23 major singles titles.
The most historic moment came in 2001 when she and Venus vaulted the women’s game into prime time as they faced off in the first women’s final not to be played in the afternoon. Venus won, 6-2, 6-4, and women’s tennis was forever changed as 22.7 million viewers tuned in.
The worst came in 2018 when her attempt for a record 24th Grand Slam title failed in surreal fashion after umpire Carlos Ramos penalized her a game deep into the set after she called him a “thief.” Naomi Osaka had no trouble taking the set, but her play was overshadowed by the meltdown. Both players stood and cried on the trophy stand as fans booed officials.
There was no crying after Williams’ match Monday. Just a big smile from an icon who knows every match could be her last.
“Sometimes it’s harder to walk away than not,” she said. “That’s been the thing for me. But I decided now is the time. There’s other chapters in life.”
Those chapters won’t be written for at least two more days.
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
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