NEW YORK -- Serena Williams shocked No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit in the second round of the US Open on Wednesday night at Arthur Ashe Stadium, delaying her anticipated retirement yet again. Williams, a 23-time major winner, won 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-2.
"It's no rush here," Following a game that lasted two hours and 26 minutes, Williams stated during her on-court interview. "I'm loving this crowd. Oh my goodness. It's really fantastic. So there's a little left in me."
In a first-person article published in Vogue earlier this month, Williams, 40, first revealed her intentions to "evolve" from tennis and gave the reason that she wanted to start a family. Since her first appearance, she has gotten innumerable congratulations and standing ovations, and her matches have grown in popularity.
In comparison to the same time slot in 2021, her match on Monday night averaged 2.7 million viewers on ESPN, and a record number of spectators were in attendance. In fact, the competition broke another record for night session attendance on Wednesday when 29,959 spectators entered the National Tennis Center. It surpassed Monday's record of 29,402 and was the second such record to be broken in three evenings.
The event honoured Williams' career on Monday after the match with an on-court ceremony organised by Gayle King, a video with Oprah Winfrey as the narrator, and a tribute from Billie Jean King.
Tiger Woods, Dionne Warwick, Anna Wintour, Zendaya, Spike Lee, Gladys Knight, Seal, and Anthony Anderson were all there at the equally famous event on Wednesday. Williams was sitting in her player box with Wintour, the editor of Vogue, and Woods, whom she credited in her Vogue column for inspiring her to play golf again in the spring after a break of over a year.
Even though there was no official ceremony following the game on Wednesday, Williams received a warm welcome from the about 24,000 spectators. The chair umpire had to repeatedly warn the fans to be silent during play because of the huge applause for her that erupted as she entered the court as the "best of all time."
"I think you can only have this experience once in a lifetime, for sure," Williams later said about the atmosphere. The 26-year-old Kontaveit, who has won five titles since August 2021, was Williams' opponent for the first time, but she seemed to be more than ready for the intense struggle and persistent rallies.
Williams won the tense first set in a tiebreak after clinching it with an ace. However, Kontaveit dominated on the first serve and slammed 15 winners in the 36-minute second set. She appeared to have gotten used to the boisterous crowd. But neither Williams nor the fans gave up. Williams appeared to have found another gear in the decider after leaving the court in between sets. She had exhibited signs of weariness in the second set, but she overcame them by relying on her trademark serve (she finished the day with 11 aces) and strong hitting.
"I honestly feel like Serena started playing better," Kontaveit spoke on the decisive set. She was making somewhat more contact and missing slightly fewer times. I believed that she played a fantastic third set.
"She really switched it on from there, yeah. I mean, I guess there's a few points here and there where I feel like I could have done better on my serve maybe. I mean, she was returning better. She was playing the rallies better. I felt like she did everything a little bit better in the third set."
Williams joked that it "wasn't No. 2" but later admitted to reporters that she "simply became lighter" over the interval. It was Williams' 103rd victory in Arthur Ashe Stadium, the most of any player on the court, and her 367th triumph at a Grand Slam, extending her record among women.
The former No. 1 claimed that this event is the first time since winning her maiden major championship in 1999 that she feels free to play without inhibition in her on-court remarks after the win and in her subsequent press conference.
"I just feel like I have had a big red X on my back since I won the US Open in '99," she said. "It's been there my entire career because I won my first Grand Slam early in my career. But here it's different. I feel like I've already won, figuratively, and mentally. It's just pretty awesome the things that I've done.
"I never, like, accept that. I never think about it. Yeah, so tonight I was just like, 'Serena, you've already won, just play, be Serena. You're better than this.' That's what I was able to do."
Williams and sister Venus will begin doubles play at Ashe on Thursday night against Lucie Hradecka and Linda Noskova before going on to face Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round on Friday, an encounter that Tomljanovic claims she has been dreaming of since she was a child. Together, the pair has claimed 14 major championships, including two at the US Open.
Venus said it was Serena's idea to play with her one last time, despite the fact that she has not officially announced any upcoming retirement plans of her own. "She's the boss, so [I] do whatever she tells me to do," Venus said on Tuesday. "We have had some great wins [together]. It would be nice to add some more."
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