Serena Williams Prolongs Farewell Tour With First-Round Win at U.S Open

Serena Williams will prolong her singles career for at least two more days after beating Danka Kovinić in the first round of the 2022 U.S. Open on Monday. 

In front of a packed and star-studded crowd at Flushing Meadows, the 23-time Grand Slam champion downed the 27-year-old Montenegrin in straight sets, 6–3, 6–3.

After arriving at Arthur Ashe Stadium to much fanfare on Monday, Williams’s nerves showed early on in the match. The six-time U.S. Open champ double-faulted five times in the first set, but eventually found her serve to close out the opening set with two aces in the final three points.

Williams’s serve continued to power her through the second set, as she dominated after winning a break point that put her up 3–2. She would lose just one more game in the match before closing out Kovinić, much to the delight of the crowd in attendance. 

Earlier this month, Williams penned a first-person essay in Vogue saying that she planned to end her tennis career in the near future following the U.S. Open. After spending more than the last two decades on the court, Williams, who will turn 41 next month, explained that she wanted to “evolve” from tennis and spend more time pursuing other ventures, which includes growing her family.

“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. Maybe the best word to describe what I’m up to is evolution,” she wrote. “I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me. A few years ago I quietly started Serena Ventures, a venture capital firm. Soon after that, I started a family. I want to grow that family.”

Williams, who first burst onto the scene as a teenager with a victory at the 1999 U.S. Open, will still have a chance to add to her 73 career singles titles, 23 career doubles titles and more than $94 million in career winnings. She also holds the record for most Grand Slam singles titles in the Open Era with 23, just one championship shy of Margaret Court’s all-time record.

After Monday’s win, Williams will advance to take on the draw’s No. 2 seed, Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit, on Wednesday.