Serena Williams was defeated by Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round of the U.S. Open on Friday night in front of a boisterous crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium. It is anticipated that this was Serena Williams' final match of her spectacular tennis career. Williams refused to give up easily, holding off five match points to extend the event's duration into three hours as some spectators stood by with cameras in hand. No one wanted this to end, with the exception of Tomljanovic, of course. When Williams scored on Tomljanovic's sixth opportunity, it did.
Williams turns 41 this month and recently told the world that she is ready to start “evolving” away from her playing days — she expressed distaste for the word “retirement” — and while she has remained purposely vague about whether this appearance at Flushing Meadows definitely would represent her final tournament, everyone assumes it will be.
It was treated that way Friday night, and Williams cried in court immediately afterwards. Asked whether she might reconsider, she replied: “I don’t think so, but you never know.” If this was her final match, she gave her fans a thrilling nostalgic experience at the hard-court tournament where she won half of her 23 Grand Slam titles. When Williams was only 17 years old, the first occurred in New York in 1999.
She lost to Australian Tomljanovic, 29, who is ranked 46th and is 29 years old. Williams lost sets when she had led, including the last set where she had a 1-0 lead before losing the final six games.
Williams' feet became twisted at one point in the second set, causing her to fall to the ground and drop her racket. She had 51 unforced mistakes in total, 21 more than Tomljanovic. Williams allowed the first set to end with a 5-3 deficit. Similar mistakes were made in the second set, as she surrendered leads of 4-0 and 5-2 and needed five set points to finally win. Williams smashed a 117 mph ace, blasted a forehand winner to cap a 20-stroke exchange, and then saw Tomljanovic push a forehand long in the tiebreaker from 4-all, which meant she was three points from losing.
Williams seemed to have the momentum. But she was unable to make the same kind of comeback that she had throughout the years. “Oh, my God, thank you so much. You guys were amazing today. I tried,” Hands on hips, Williams addressed the crowd before mentioning her spouse, parents, and older sister Venus, a seven-time major champion. “I wouldn’t be Serena if there wasn’t Venus. So thank you, Venus,” she said. “She’s the only reason that Serena Williams ever existed.”
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