US Open 2022: Serena Williams not ready for GOODBYE, wins first round clash with ease, WATCH

Serena Williams is not ready to say goodbye just yet. Nor, clearly, are her fans. In her first match at what is expected to be the last US Open — and last tournament — of her remarkable playing career, Williams overcame a shaky start to overwhelm Danka Kovinic 6-3, 6-3 on Monday (August 29) night in a packed Arthur Ashe Stadium with an atmosphere more akin to a festival than a farewell.

Early, Williams was not at her best. There were double-faults. Other missed strokes, missed opportunities. She went up 2-0, but then quickly trailed 3-2. Then, suddenly, Williams, less than a month from turning 41, looked a lot more like someone with six championships at Flushing Meadows and 23 Grand Slam titles in all — numbers never exceeded by anyone in the professional era of tennis, which began in 1968.

She rolled through the end of that opening set, capping it with a service winner she reacted to with clenched fists and her trademark cry of “Come on!” The more than 23,000 in attendance rose for a raucous standing ovation — and did so again when the 1-hour, 40-minute contest was over, celebrating as if another trophy had been earned.

Williams will continue to play now, facing No. 2 seed Anett Kontveit of Estonia on Wednesday. And, there seems no doubt, they will come again to the US Open 2022 from far and wide for Serena — no last name required, befitting someone as much an icon as superstar athlete — eager to see her play or, if not lucky enough to hold the right ticket, hoping for an autograph, a glance at her practicing or merely the chance to breathe the same Flushing Meadows air as her.

As thousands waited in lines to enter the tournament grounds hours before her match, then headed to smaller courts for earlier action or simply milled around, waiting and wading in the palpable excitement, no one present could know for sure how many more opportunities there will be for any of it. Folks were there to watch, or just think about watching, Williams swing her racket.

That winning feeling. #Serena pic.twitter.com/xJ4YUdi1Fj — US Open Tennis (@usopen) August 30, 2022

And they were there to honor her and show appreciation for what she’s done on the court and off.

At about 6:15 p.m., Williams made the short walk to the practice courts beside Arthur Ashe Stadium for a half-hour hitting session to warm up. Folks packing the bleachers above the practice area greeted her with shrieks of “Serenaaaaa!” on her way in, and again yelled on her way out, receiving a wave of her racket as acknowledgment before Williams strode, lips pursed, back into the stadium.

About 45 minutes after that, the match began and it was as clear as ever that she means a lot to a lot of people. As a tennis player. As a woman. As an African American. As a mother. As a businesswoman. “When she started out, female athletes weren’t getting recognized. She’s done so much,” said Quintella Thorn, a 68-year-old from Columbus, Georgia, making her eighth trip to the US Open 2022. “And now, she’s ...”

“Evolving,” chimed in Thorn’s friend, Cora Monroe, 72, of Shreveport, Louisiana, which she noted is where Richard Williams — the father of Serena and sister Venus, and the central figure in the Oscar-winning film “King Richard” — is from, too.

That word, “evolving,” is the one Williams said she preferred to the more commonly used “retirement” when she wrote in an essay for Vogue released about three weeks ago that she was ready to concentrate on having a second child (her daughter, Olympia, turns 5 on Thursday) and her venture capital firm.

Olympia wore white beads in her hair on Monday, a nod to her mom's hairstyle when she won her first US Open in 1999 at age 17. While Williams did not exactly declare that the US Open definitively would be her last tournament — she also is entered in doubles with Venus, who is 42 and a seven-time major singles champ herself — she has made it sound as if it will be.

(with PTI inputs)