[News] Serena Williams' singles career continues on against world No. 2 Anett Kontaveit at US Open

[Amaterasu イタチ]

Serena Williams plays a backhand against Danka Kovinić during the women's singles first round Monday at the US Open.

 

 

(CNN)Serena Williams, looking to further delay the end of her storied tennis career, will take on world No. 2 Anett Kontaveit of Estonia at the US Open in Flushing, New York, on Wednesday night.

Williams began US Open singles play Monday with a 6-3 6-3 victory over Danka Kovinić of Montenegro. It was Williams' third match since announcing in Vogue magazine she will "evolve away from tennis" after the US Open.
"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," Williams said in the Vogue article published earlier this month.
"Maybe the best word to describe what I'm up to is evolution. I'm here to tell you that I'm evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me," she said.
At her post-match news conference Monday, Williams was asked if this is definitely her last tournament.
"Yeah, I've been pretty vague about it, right?" she said with a smile. "I'm going to stay vague because you never know."
Williams also will open doubles play with her sister Venus Williams on Wednesday.

The opening-round win over Kovinić was the best Serena Williams has looked since making her comeback from injury. She has managed to win just one match since returning to the circuit in June and has been unable to get close to the form that helped her win her last grand slam title in 2017.
While Williams was still a way off that level in Monday's win over Kovinić, it will have certainly given her hope that her last dance at the US Open could be extended.
One of the greatest tennis players ever, Williams has won 23 grand slam singles titles and has won the US Open six times, most recently in 2014. Now 40 years old, Williams' career will come full circle as her final match -- in whichever round that turns out to be -- is to be played at the site of the first of her grand slam singles wins, the 1999 US Open.
Then just a teenager, Williams burst onto the scene to stun world No. 1 Martina Hingis in the final and lay the first stepping stone on her path to two decades of dominance.

 

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