One of the most prolific sports personalities in the 21st century, Serena Williams hinted at her decision to move on from professional tennis in a first-person essay for Vogue earlier in August. Serena dislikes the term "retirement," preferring to refer to it as an "evolution," as she explains in her essay.  Serena Williams is believed to have made her last professional tennis appearance against Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic on September 2, 2022, in the third round of the US Open and brought the curtain to her 27-year long illustrious career. Serena Williams' legacy as a tennis player is discussed in this article. Serena Williams' early life and family Born on September 26, 1981 in Saginaw, Michigan, Serena Williams is the youngest of two daughters of Oracene Price and Richard Williams. Serena’s oldest sister, Venus, was a renowned tennis player. The Williams family moved to California when their children were young. Serena began playing tennis when she was four years old. Serena and her family moved to Florida when she was nine so that she could attend the tennis academy run by Rick Macci. However, in 1995, Richard pulled his daughters out of Rick Macci's academy, and in the same year, Serena became a pro tennis player. Richard Williams has been his daughter's official coach all through their career. Her mother, Oracene Price, also guided her two daughters in the initial years of their careers. Aside from them, French tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou worked briefly with Serena from 2012 to 2022. Serena Williams married Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian on November 16, 2017 in New Orleans. Two months earlier, in September, Serena gave birth to her first child, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr, who is commonly known as "Olympia". Serena’s Tennis Career at a Glance Serena Williams is considered one of the most decorated players in both men's and women's tennis in the open era. Her 23 grand slam titles, most in the open era and the second-most of all-time, speak for themselves. Serena had to wait four years to win her first Grand Slam women’s singles event after making her professional tennis debut at the Bell Challenge in Quebec in October, 1995. Her first singles Grand Slam victory came at the US Open in 1999. In the following year, 2000, she won her first Olympic gold medal in the singles event. The next decade, the tennis world saw a complete domination by the William sisters, especially the younger one—Serena. Perhaps her greatest rivalry was against her sister, Venus Williams, with whom she also shared tremendous success in doubles events. At one point, the Serena-Venus pair was untouchable. Together they won 22 women’s doubles titles, which included 14 Grand Slam Women’s Doubles and three Summer Olympics Doubles titles. They were dominant, especially at Wimbledon, where they won six doubles matches. Their Olympic Doubles came in Sydney in 2000, Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012. Serena, on the other hand, always maintained dominance over Venus.

Much like for so many other folks, Serena Williams' last match at the U.S. Open was must-see TV for players still in the tournament, so Jessica Pegula and Petra Kvitova tuned in from their hotel rooms the night before their victories led off Saturday's schedule and set up a fourth-round showdown. “Of course I watched Serena. I'm like everyone else,” said Pegula, a 28-year-old American who is seeded No. 8 at Flushing Meadows and beat qualifier Yuan Yue 6-2, 6-7 (6), 6-0. “You feel kind of sad that’s how it ends. But, I don’t know, like I got a little, like, sentimental, too, watching her, how emotional she was getting.” Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion from the Czech Republic, credited Williams' last stand — the owner of 23 Grand Slam titles fended off five match points before bowing out in three sets against Ajla Tomljanovic on Friday night in what is expected to be her final contest — with offering inspiration. “It was very special. She didn’t want to leave the court, for sure. That was the same case with me today, actually. I didn’t want to go out of this tournament, so I was just there hanging (in), somehow,” said Kvitova, who erased deficit after deficit, including a pair of match points, to edge Garbiñe Muguruza 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (12-10). Read:Let Serena define her legacy as she leaves tennis “That's what Serena showed last night,” said Kvitova, who dropped her racket and covered her face with her ends when what she called a “nightmare” of a tiebreaker was over. “It was nice to see her yesterday, fighting until the end.” Yes, Williams is gone, leaving the year's last major tournament — and, in some ways, the sport as a whole — without its biggest star and storyline. Still, the show must go on. So there was Kvitova, undaunted as ever, despite dropping the first set, despite trailing 5-2 in the third, despite being a point from defeat twice at 6-5. Here’s how close this one was: Kvitova won 109 total points, Muguruza 108. “Left everything on the court today,” said No. 9 Muguruza, a two-time Slam winner whose departure means the bracket was without six of the top 10 women before the third round was even done. No. 1 Iga Swiatek moved into the fourth round by beating Lauren Davis 6-3, 6-4; No. 6 Aryna Sabalenka was playing later Saturday. During the night session in Ashe, 22-time major champ Rafael Nadal improved his career mark against Richard Gasquet to 18-0 with a 6-0, 6-1, 7-5 victory. Nadal won the opening nine games and was on his way to improving to 22-0 in Grand Slam matches in 2022. Nadal did not have stitches or a bandage on his nose, two days after accidentally cutting it with his racket during his previous victory. “A little bit bgger than usual, but it's OK,” he said with a smile. “The nose is still there.” Nadal's win was followed in Ashe by Australian Open runner-up Danielle Collins against Caroline Garcia. On Monday, Nadal will take on No. 22 Frances Tiafoe, the first American man since Mardy Fish in 2010-12 to get to the U.S. Open's fourth round in three consecutive years. Tiafoe eliminated No. 14 Diego Schwartzman 7-6 (7), 6-4, 6-4. Read: Serena Williams loses to Tomljanovic in US Open farewell It was going to be tough for any of the day's matches to live up to the sort of attention Williams drew, or the atmosphere she helped create, during her three-match run in Ashe. “I just can’t believe the ‘era of Serena’ on the tennis court is over,” Pegula said. “I mean, it’s just hard to picture tennis without her.” In other action Saturday, two-time Australian Open champion Viktoria Azarenka was a 6-3, 6-0 winner against Petra Martic; two-time major runner-up Karolina Pliskova beat Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Belinda Bencic 5-7, 6-4, 6-3; No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz, a 19-year-old Spaniard, defeated unseeded Jenson Brooksby, a 21-year-old Californian, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3; No. 7 Cam Norrie beat No. 28 Holger Rune 7-5, 6-4, 6-1 in the men's draw; No. 9 Andrey Rublev got past No. 19 Denis Shapovalov 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4, 7-6 (10-7); and 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic beat No. 20 Dan Evans 7-6 (11), 6-7 (3); 6-2, 7-5. Upcoming matchups include Azarenka vs. Bencic; Alcaraz vs. Cilic, and Norrie vs. Rublev. As for Kvitova-Muguruza, Rublev-Shapovalov required the new final-set tiebreaker format to determine the winner. The four Grand Slam tournaments agreed to adopt a uniform system this year, with the third sets of women’s matches and fifth sets of men’s decided by a first-to-10, win-by-two formula; the U.S. Open used to have the more traditional first-to-seven setup. Pegula's domination of her last set made that sort of thing entirely unnecessary. She had wasted a chance to close out the victory a half-hour earlier when she wasn't able to convert her match point, but quickly regrouped. Pegula started her Grand Slam career by going 3-8. She’s gone 22-7 since, including runs to quarterfinals at the Australian Open each of the past two years and the French Open this year. The 28-year-old American, whose parents own the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, came into Saturday with an 0-2 record in third-round matches at Flushing Meadows, including a loss to Kvitova in 2020. Pegula gets another shot at her Monday. “Petra is so hard to play. I feel like when she’s on, she blows you off the court. And then sometimes she can be off. .. She's a fighter. When it clicks, it’s really difficult,” Pegula said, then was sure to add: “I think I’m a much better player now than I was when I played her last time.”

After all of the many tributes to Serena Williams were done, the celebratory words and the video montages, the standing ovations and the shouts of her name, it seemed appropriate that she herself would provide the defining look at her legacy. So the last question at the news conference after her last match of the U.S. Open — and, it seems clear, of her career — offered Williams the chance to say how she’d most like to be remembered. “I feel like I really brought something, and bring something, to tennis. The different looks. The fist pumps. The just crazy intensity. ... ‘Passion,’ I think, is a really good word. Just continuing through ups and downs,” she responded Friday night. “I could go on and on. But I just honestly am so grateful that I had this moment — and that I’m Serena.” That captures so much about her so well. And to think: Williams, who turns 41 this month, did not even mention anything about being an elite athlete or any of the statistics that help define what she did with a racket in her hand. The 23 championships at the Grand Slam tournaments that have come to define success in her sport. Another 50 singles titles elsewhere. The 14 majors in doubles with her sister, Venus. The 319 weeks at No. 1. The four Olympic gold medals. So, sure, it’s impossible to assess Williams without considering her place in the pantheon of superstars, as worthy as anyone — woman or man, this generation or any other, this sport or any other — of the honorific “Greatest of All Time” (one clever spectator at Williams’ 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-1 loss to Ajla Tomljanovic held up a poster with, simply, a drawing of a goat). “She is an all-time great. Obviously, that’s an understatement,” said Martina Navratilova, an 18-time major winner who certainly is part of that whole conversation. But Williams is also about a lot more than that. No Black woman had won a Slam title since Althea Gibson in the 1950s until Williams came along and collected her first at the 1999 U.S. Open at age 17. Over the more than two decades since, Williams and Venus, who earned seven major singles trophies of her own, get credit for inspiring Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka and countless of others to play tennis, yes, but also for pushing plenty of others to change their views about what can be done and what can’t. Read: Serena Williams loses to Tomljanovic in US Open farewell “She embodies that no dream is too big,” Tomljanovic said. “You can do anything if you believe in yourself, you love what you do and you have an incredible support system around you.” There’s more. She won a Grand Slam title while pregnant, went through scary health complications after giving birth to her daughter, Olympia, in 2017, and would return to the tour and reach four more major finals. She has a venture capital firm that raised more than $100 million. “Everyone looks at her and tries to be like Serena,” said Caroline Garcia, a Frenchwoman seeded 17th and into the fourth round at the U.S. Open. “And I’m sure that’s going to be for years to come.” Williams wore what she wanted on a tennis court. She reacted how she wanted, during and away from her matches. She said what she wanted, sometimes addressing social issues, sometimes not, but there always was a sense that she was the one who decided. There were those who criticized her, of course. Those who wondered whether she was doing things the right way. Just as there were those who thought it was a mistake for her father, Richard, to keep his young daughters away from the junior tennis circuit. Um, seems as if that worked out, huh? “I will definitely (be) missing her on the courts,” Tomljanovic said, surely echoing the thoughts of many. “It will not be the same.” No, tennis most definitely will not be the same without Williams. Not even close. That’s OK, though. It’s time, as Williams famously wrote, for her to be “evolving” away from her days as a player. It’s time for her to devote extra energy to being a mom and a businesswomen and whatever else life brings her way. As Williams observed after hitting one last shot: “I have such a bright future ahead of me.”

Leave it to Serena Williams to not want to go quietly, to not want this match, this trip to the U.S. Open, this transcendent career of hers, to really, truly end. Right down to what were, barring a change of heart, the final minutes of her quarter-century of excellence on the tennis court, and an unbending unwillingness to be told what wasn’t possible, Williams tried to mount one last classic comeback, earn one last vintage victory, with fans on their feet in a full Arthur Ashe Stadium, cellphone cameras at the ready. The 23-time Grand Slam champion staved off five match points to prolong the three-hours-plus proceedings, but could not do more, and was eliminated from the U.S. Open in the third round by Ajla Tomljanovic 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-1 on Friday night in what is expected to be her final contest. “I’ve been down before. ... I don’t really give up,” Williams said. “In my career, I’ve never given up. In matches, I don’t give up. Definitely wasn’t giving up tonight.” She 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 remained purposely vague about whether this appearance at Flushing Meadows definitely would represent her last hurrah, everyone assumed it will be. “It’s been the most incredible ride and journey I’ve ever been on in my life,” Williams said, tears streaming down her cheeks shortly after one final shot landed in the net. “I’m so grateful to every single person that’s ever said, ‘Go, Serena!’ in their life.” Asked during an on-court interview whether she might reconsider walking away, Williams replied: “I don’t think so, but you never know.” A little later, pressed on the same topic at her post-match news conference, Williams joked, “I always did love Australia,” the country that hosts the next Grand Slam tournament in January. With two victories in singles this week, including over the No. 2 player in the world, Anett Kontaveit, on Wednesday, Williams took her fans on a thrill-a-minute throwback trip at the hard-court tournament that was the site of a half-dozen of her championships. The first came in 1999 in New York, when Williams was a teen. Now she’s married and a mother; her daughter, Olympia, turned 5 on Thursday. “Clearly, I’m still capable. ... (But) I’m ready to be a mom, explore a different version of Serena,” she said. “Technically, in the world, I’m still super young, so I want to have a little bit of a life while I’m still walking.” With 23,859 of her closest friends cheering raucously again Friday, Williams faltered against Tomljanovic, a 29-year-old Australian who is ranked 46th. Williams gave away leads in each set, including the last, in which she was up 1-0 before dropping the final six games. Tomljanovic is unabashedly a fan of Williams, having growing up watching her play on TV. “I’m feeling really sorry, just because I love Serena just as much as you guys do. And what she’s done for me, for the sport of tennis, is incredible,” said Tomljanovic, who has never been past the quarterfinals at any major. “This is a surreal moment for me.” Then, drawing laughs, Tomljanovic added: “I just thought she would beat me. ... She’s Serena. That’s that’s just who she is: She’s the greatest of all time. Period.” Asked what she planned to do on the first day of the rest of her life Saturday, Williams said she’d rest, spend time with Olympia and then added: “I’m definitely probably going to be karaoke-ing.” Her performance with her racket Friday showed grit and featured some terrific serving, but it was not perfect. Read: Serena Williams not done yet; wins 1st match at US Open On one point in the second set, Williams’ feet got tangled and she fell to the court, dropping her racket. She finished with 51 unforced errors, 21 more than Tomljanovic. Williams let a 5-3 lead vanish in the first set. She did something similar in the second, giving away edges of 4-0 and 5-2, and requiring five set points to finally put that one in her pocket. From 4-all in the tiebreaker, meaning Williams was three points from defeat, she pounded a 117 mph ace, hit a forehand winner to cap a 20-stroke exchange, then watched Tomljanovic push a forehand long. Momentum appeared to be on Williams’ side. But she could not pull off the sort of never-admit-defeat triumph she did so often over the years. “Oh, my God, thank you so much. You guys were amazing today. I tried,” Williams told the audience, hands on her hips, before mentioning, among others, her parents and her older sister, Venus, a seven-time major champion who is 42. “I wouldn’t be Serena if there wasn’t Venus. So thank you, Venus,” Williams said. “She’s the only reason that Serena Williams ever existed.” They started in tennis as kids in Compton, California, coached by their father, Richard, who taught himself about the sport after watching on television while a player received a winner’s check. He was the central figure in the Oscar-winning film “King Richard,” produced by his daughters. The siblings lost together in the first round of doubles on Thursday night, drawing another sellout. And on Friday, as during the younger Williams’ other outings this week, there could be no doubt about which player the paying public favored. When Tomljanovic broke to go up 6-5 as part of a four-game run to take the opening set, one person in her guest box rose to applaud — and he was pretty much on his own. Otherwise, folks applauded when Tomljanovic double-faulted, generally considered a faux pas for tennis crowds. They got loud in the middle of lengthy exchanges, also frowned upon. They offered sympathetic sounds of “Awwwwww” when Williams flubbed a shot, and leapt out of their seats when she did something they found extraordinary. A rather routine service break was cause for a standing ovation. Tomljanovic draped a blue-and-white U.S. Open towel over her head at changeovers, shielding herself from the noise and distractions. “Just really blocked it out as much as I could. It did get to me a few times, internally. I mean, I didn’t take it personally because, I mean, I would be cheering for Serena, too, if I wasn’t playing her,” Tomljanovic said. “But it was definitely not easy.” After Williams struck a swinging backhand volley winner to take a 4-0 lead in the second set, her play improving with every passing moment, the reaction was earsplitting. Billie Jean King, a Hall of Famer with 39 total Grand Slam titles across singles, doubles and mixed doubles, raised her cellphone to capture the scene. “You’re everywhere!” yelled Williams’ husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, from a courtside guest box that also contained power couple Ciara and Russell Wilson. When Williams drove two consecutive forehand winners to lead 5-2 in the second set, she screamed and leaned forward after each. She could not sustain that level. Williams entered the night having won 19 times in a row in the U.S. Open’s third round of singles competition, including reaching at least the semifinals in her most recent 11 appearances in New York. Talk about a full-circle moment: The only other third-round loss she’s ever had at Flushing Meadows (she is 42-0 in the first and second rounds) came in 1998, the year Williams made her tournament debut at age 16. She would win her first major trophy 12 months later at the U.S. Open. And now she said goodbye in that same stadium.   “It’s been a long time. I’ve been playing tennis my whole life,” Williams said Friday night, after performing one last twirl-and-wave move usually reserved for victories. “It is a little soon, but I’m also happy because, I mean, this is what I wanted, what I want.”

Serena Williams can call it “evolving” or “retiring” or whatever she wants. And she can be coy about whether or not this U.S. Open will actually mark the end of her playing days. Those 23 Grand Slam titles earned that right. If she keeps playing like this, who knows how long this farewell will last? No matter what happens once her trip to Flushing Meadows is over, here is what is important to know after Wednesday night: The 40-year-old Williams is still around, she’s still capable of terrific tennis, she's still winning — and, like the adoring spectators whose roars filled Arthur Ashe Stadium again — she's ready for more. Williams eliminated No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-2 in the U.S. Open’s second round to ensure that she will play at least one more singles match at what she’s hinted will be the last tournament of her illustrious career. “There’s still a little left in me,” Williams said with a smile during her on-court interview, then acknowledged during her post-match news conference: ”These moments are clearly fleeting." After beating 80th-ranked Danka Kovinic in straight sets Monday, then collecting her 23rd victory in her past 25 matches against someone ranked Nos. 1 or 2 against Kontaveit on Wednesday, the six-time champion at Flushing Meadows will play Friday for a spot in the fourth round. Her opponent will be Ajla Tomljanovic, a 29-year-old Australian who is ranked 46th. They've never met, but Tomljanovic, who said she considers herself a Williams fan, figures she knows what to anticipate from the American — and from those in the seats. “I was playing on Court 7 both of my matches so far at the same time as her, and I could hear the crowd. I’m like, ‘Court 7 isn’t that close.’ I kept thinking, ‘Oh, my God, that’s annoying me and I’m not even playing against her.’ I don’t know how I’m going to do it,” Tomljanovic said. “What I’m going to focus on is to keep the scoreline close, because I think she gets dangerous if she gets up. She’s the best when she gets ahead.” On Wednesday, Williams hit serves at up to 119 mph, stayed with Kontaveit during lengthy exchanges of big swings from the baselines and conjured up some of her trademark brilliance when it was needed most. After pulling out a tight first set, then faltering in the second, Williams headed to the locker room for a bathroom break before the third. Something had to give, someone had to blink. When they resumed, it was Williams who lifted her level and emerged as the better player. Just as she’s done so many times, on so many stages, with so much at stake. “I'm just Serena. After I lost the second set, I thought, ‘Oh, my goodness, I better give my best effort because this could be it,’” Williams said, surely echoing the thoughts of everyone paying any attention. “I never get to play like this — since ’98, really," she said. "Literally, I’ve had an ‘X’ on my back since ’99,” the year she claimed her first Grand Slam title at the U.S. Open at age 17. Whatever rust accumulated when Williams missed about a year of action before returning to the tour in late June appears to have vanished. She was 1-3 in 2022 entering the U.S. Open. “Now it’s kind of coming together,” Williams said. “I mean, it had to come together today.” Williams has doubles to play, too. She and her sister, Venus, have won 14 major championships as a team and will begin that event Thursday night. Kontaveit, a 26-year-old from Estonia, is a powerful hitter in her own right, the sort that spread across women’s tennis over the past two decades after a pair of siblings from Compton, California, changed the game. But there's a caveat attached to Kontaveit's ranking: She has never won so much as one quarterfinal match at any Grand Slam tournament in 30 career appearances. Read:Serena Williams not done yet; wins 1st match at US Open So maybe that's why, much like with Kovinic 48 hours earlier, Williams’ opponent was introduced just by her name, and Kontaveit walked out to a smattering of applause. Williams, in contrast, got the full treatment: highlight video, a listing of her many accolades and a loud greeting from folks part of the largest U.S. Open attendance ever at a night session, 29,959, eclipsing the record set Monday. “It was her moment,” Kontaveit said. “Of course, this is totally about her." As strident a competitor as tennis, or any sport, has seen, as rightly self-confident in her abilities as any athlete, Williams was not about to think of this whole exercise as merely a celebration of her career. She came to New York wanting to win, of course. Wearing the same glittery crystal-encrusted top and diamond-accented sneakers — replete with solid gold shoelace tags and the word “Queen” on the right one, “Mama” on the left — that she sported Monday, Williams was ready for prime time. The match began with Kontaveit grabbing the first five points, Williams the next five. And on they went, back and forth. Kontaveit’s mistakes were cheered — even faults, drawing an admonishment for the crowd from chair umpire Alison Hughes about making noise between serves. Early in the third set, Kontaveit hit a cross-court forehand that caught the outermost edge of a sideline. A video on the stadium screens showed just how close it was, confirming that the ball did, indeed, land in. That brought out boos from the stands. Williams raised her arm and wagged a finger, telling her backers not to cause a fuss. If anything, Kontaveit received more acknowledgment from the player trying to defeat her than anyone else, as Williams would respond to great shots with a nod or a racket clap. “They were not rooting against me. They just wanted Serena to win so bad,” Kontaveit said, calling the treatment she received “fair," even if it was “something I never experienced before.” Williams broke for a 5-4 edge when Kontaveit pushed a backhand long, spurring yelling spectators to rise to their feet — and Williams’ husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, jumped right in, too, waving his arms in her direction, a few rows in front of where Venus and Tiger Woods were two seats apart. But with a chance to serve out that set, Williams briefly lost her way. A double-fault made it 5-all. Eventually they went to a tiebreaker, and at 3-3, a chant of “Let’s go, Serena!” broke out, accompanied by rhythmic clapping. Soon, Williams delivered a 101 mph service winner and a 91 mph ace to seal that set. To Kontaveit’s credit, she did not fold, did not let the disappointment linger. Instead, she raced to a 3-0 edge in the second with 10 winners and zero unforced errors. In the third, it was Williams who gained the upper hand, and it seemed every point she won elicited an enthusiastic response. After a swinging forehand volley winner put Williams a game from victory, she raised both arms, then clenched her left fist. One game, and five minutes later, it was over — and her stay at the U.S. Open could proceed. Asked whether she's a title contender, Williams answered: “I can not think that far. I'm having fun and I'm enjoying it.”

They came from far and wide for Serena — no last name required, befitting someone as much an icon as superstar athlete — to see her practice and play and, it turned out, win a match at the U.S. Open on Monday night, turning out in record numbers to fill Arthur Ashe Stadium and shout and applaud and pump their fists right along with her. Serena Williams is not ready to say goodbye just yet. Nor, clearly, are her fans. And she heard them, loud and clear. In her first match at what is expected to be the last U.S. Open — and last tournament — of her remarkable playing career, even if she insists that she won’t quite say so, Williams overcame a shaky start to overpower Danka Kovinic 6-3, 6-3 amid an atmosphere more akin to a festival than a farewell. What memory will stick with her the most from the evening? Also read: Serena's Choice: Williams' tough call resonates with women “When I walked out, the reception was really overwhelming. It was loud and I could feel it in my chest. It was a really good feeling,” said the owner of six U.S. Open championships and 23 Grand Slam titles overall, numbers unsurpassed by any other player in the sport’s professional era. “It’s a feeling I’ll never forget,” she added. “Yeah, that meant a lot to me.” This opening outing against Kovinic, a 27-year-old from Montenegro ranked 80th, became an event with a capital “E.” Spike Lee participated in the pre-match coin toss. Former President Bill Clinton was in the stands. So were Mike Tyson and Martina Navratilova, sitting next to each other. And sitting with Dad and Grandma was Williams’ daughter, Olympia, who turns 5 on Thursday, wearing white beads in her hair just like Mom did while winning the U.S. Open for the first time at age 17 back in 1999. Williams is now 40, and told the world three weeks ago via an essay for Vogue that she was ready to concentrate on having a second child and her venture capital firm. Asked after her victory Monday whether this will definitively be her final tournament, Williams replied with a knowing smile: “Yeah, I’ve been pretty vague about it, right?” Then she added: “I’m going to stay vague, because you never know.” The night session drew 29,000 folks, a high for the tournament — more than 23,000 were in Ashe; thousands more watched on a video screen outside the arena — and the place was as loud as ever. Certainly louder than any other first-round match in memory. Both players called the decibel level “crazy.” Kovinic said she couldn’t hear the ball come off Williams’ racket strings — or even her own. Early, Williams was not at her best. Maybe it was the significance of the moment. There were double-faults. Other missed strokes, missed opportunities. She went up 2-0, but then quickly trailed 3-2. Then, suddenly, Williams, looked a lot like the champion she’s been for decades and less like the player who came into this match with a 1-3 record since returning to action in late June after nearly a year off the tour. “At this point, honestly, everything is a bonus for me, I feel,” Williams said. “It’s good that I was able to get this under my belt. ... I’m just not even thinking about that. I’m just thinking about just this moment. I think it’s good for me just to live in the moment now.” 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!” That was met with thunderous cheers and applause — as was the ending of the 1-hour, 40-minute contest, as if another trophy had been earned. Instead, there is plenty more work to be done. Williams will play in the second round of singles on Wednesday against No. 2 seed Anett Kontveit of Estonia. And there’s also doubles, too: Williams and her sister, Venus, are entered together in that competition, with their initial match slated for Wednesday or Thursday. “Just keep supporting me,” Williams told the spectators, “as long as I’m here.” They surely will. They were there to honor her and show appreciation for what she’s done on the court and off. After watching the victory over Kovinic, spectators held up blue, white or red placards that were distributed at their seats to spell out “We (Heart) Serena.” After Kovinic was introduced simply by name, making clear to even her what an afterthought she was on this muggy evening, Williams’ entrance was preceded by a tribute video narrated by Queen Latifah, who called the American the “Queen of Queens.” The arena announcer called Williams “the greatest of all time,” and intoned: “This U.S. Open marks the final chapter of her storied tennis history.” 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 U.S. Open. “And now, she’s ...” “Evolving,” chimed in Thorn’s friend, Cora Monroe, 72, of Shreveport, Louisiana, using the word Williams says she prefers to “retirement.” Also read: Lewis Hamilton, Serena Williams part of bid to buy Chelsea Which is why Monday mattered more than the usual Day 1 at a major tournament. And why the daily program did not make mention of any other of the dozens of athletes in action, showing instead a montage of six images of Williams holding her six U.S. Open trophies above the title: “Serena Williams, A Legacy of Greatness.” And why there was a sense of less importance for matches involving wins for other elite players such as past U.S. Open champions Bianca Andreescu, Andy Murray and Daniil Medvedev, or French Open finalist Coco Gauff, an 18-year-old American. After her own 6-2, 6-3 victory over Leolia Jeanjean earlier in the day, Gauff looked forward to sitting in Ashe herself to watch Williams, someone she credits with inspiring her to play tennis. Gauff’s original plan was to tune in on TV, but then she decided this was too important to miss. “Everybody is going to be on her side. I’m going to be cheering for her,” Gauff said. “It’s going to be probably one of the most electric matches that will ever happen in tennis.” Lived up to the billing. Now there is more to come for Williams and her supporters.

Serena Williams said it plainly: It isn’t really fair. A male athlete would never have to make the same choice. But after a trailblazing career that both transformed and transcended her sport, Williams, who turns 41 next month, has told the world she’ll soon step away from tennis to focus on having a second child and making her daughter, Olympia, a big sister. Her explanation in a lengthy Vogue essay resonated with women in sports and well beyond, many of whom could relate only too well to her words, “Something’s got to give.” And to the idea that, no, you really can’t have it all — at least, not all at the same time. Many noted that Williams’ achievements, which included winning a major when two months pregnant, had made her seem superhuman. But, said Sherie Randolph, even ordinary women are expected to seamlessly combine work and motherhood. “Society makes women think they can have everything all at once — be the best hands-on-mom and at the top of the field,” said Randolph, a history professor at Georgia Tech and founder of a Black feminist think tank who's working on a book about African American mothers. “But that just is not borne out in reality for most women,” she said. ”What ends up happening is that working mothers are just worn out and overworked trying to labor at the highest level of two demanding jobs — motherhood and their profession.” As if to prove her point, Randolph’s 4-year-old son constantly interrupted her thoughts about Williams’ decision as she tried to discuss them in a phone call. In explaining how her daughter yearned to be a big sister, Williams noted she didn't want to be pregnant again as an athlete: “I need to be two feet into tennis or two feet out.” “Believe me,” the 23-time Grand Slam champion also wrote, “I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family. I don't think it’s fair. If I were a guy I wouldn't be writing this because I’d be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labor of expanding our family. Maybe I’d be more of a Tom Brady if I had that opportunity," she said, a reference to the 45-year-old superstar quarterback who recently retired, then reversed his decision 40 days later. Many women, discussing Williams' announcement, reflected on their own agonizing choices in the name of “having it all.” “Even as a woman who sits at a desk, whose body is not taxed by the work at hand, I have felt that searing pulling apart of myself — towards my career, and towards my family,” said Jo McKinney, 57, a New York advertising executive. “Now, looking back, I wish that every time I chose my family over my job . . . it didn’t label me as unambitious,” she said. “I got goosebumps as I read Serena’s piece because she said what many of us feel and are afraid to voice: It’s not fair, and something’s got to give.” Such dilemmas are exacerbated in sports, said Lisa Banks, a prominent Washington employment attorney specializing in both gender and sports cases. “Having it all is a subjective thing,” she said. "You can have it all, but can you have it at the same time and the same level, if you’re going through pregnancies? No, you miss some time, you miss training. You’re necessarily at a disadvantage.” Read:‘Sad story’: An injured Serena Williams is out of Wimbledon The issue has been illustrated vividly in track and field. U.S. sprinters Allyson Felix and Alysia Montano became advocates for mothers when they split with Nike over contract clauses that reduced salaries when they became pregnant. Four-time Olympic champion sprinter Sanya Richards-Ross retired after the 2016 Olympics before starting a family with her husband, former NFL defensive back Aaron Ross. “I always knew I didn't want to start a family while I was still competing,” she said. “I feel being an athlete is the most selfish role you could have because it’s always all about you. Resting, recovering, training. Everything is so hyper-focused on the athlete. And being a parent is the opposite of that.” Of Williams’ decision, she said, “I don’t want to say it’s unfair, but it's a harsh reality and harsh truth that as an elite female athlete, we definitely have to consider a lot of things our male counterparts don’t.” Distance runner Kara Goucher, who also fought battles over pregnancy pay, said people are starting to acknowledge the issue, and careers are lasting longer. But she added: “You see the dad at the Super Bowl holding his kids. The reason he’s able to do that . . . is because someone else is there taking care of their children. That’s not how it is for mothers.” Like Williams when she won the Australian Open in 2017, beach volleyball player Kerri Walsh Jennings was newly pregnant when she won a gold medal in London in 2012. “I think at some point, you gotta make that choice,” she said. “Ultimately it’s very clear that that clock is ticking. Usually, being a mama wins out.” But Walsh Jennings expects Williams to keep building her legacy. (Williams has become a venture capitalist with her Serena Ventures, and is a fashion designer, among other things.) “She has earned the right to stop and breathe, and to grow her family,” she said. Tennis legend Chris Evert, who won 18 Grand Slam singles titles, retired at 34 and started a family two years later. “The motherhood/tennis career subject is not one I experienced,” she said in an email message. “I wanted and chose to spend every second with my children. That was my choice but doesn’t mean it’s the right choice for everyone. “As far as Serena, I think this is the right time,” Evert said. “She’s squeezed everything she could out of her game . . . She’s transcended tennis and become a leader on many important cultural, social and gender issues. She has lived an extraordinary life and will undoubtedly continue to crash the glass ceiling.” One thing is clear: The U.S. Open, after which Williams strongly hinted she'll retire, will be a huge draw. Ticket sales were sharply up on Tuesday, said Kirsten Corio, chief commercial officer for the U.S. Tennis Association. A mother of two herself, Corio said of Williams’ announcement that “the realization is a little bit crushing, that as a woman you can’t do both as an athlete at the top of your game.” “It’s a lot of emotions to process, both as a fan of sports and of working moms,” she said. “The one emotion that I can boil it down to, really, is just gratitude.” Dearica Hamby was also feeling gratitude. Williams, said the WNBA player for the Las Vegas Aces, has been “an example for a lot of us, especially mothers being able to compete at such a high level." Still, Hamby, who like Williams has a daughter, 5-year-old Amaya, said the tennis star's call was a hard one — and it's a discussion she's been having a lot lately with coaches and players. “You're almost forced to choose," she said of motherhood and pro sports. "It’s the reality of the world we live in. I mean, are men gonna start having kids? It’s the hard reality of the world.”

The crowded field to buy Chelsea now features 23-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams and seven-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton. A long-standing fan of Arsenal, Hamilton has seized the opportunity to invest in its London rival as three bidders try to buy the Premier League club from sanctioned Russian owner Roman Abramovich. Read: Man United hires Erik ten Hag as 5th manager in 9 years Williams and Hamilton are part of a consortium that features proposed investment from Josh Harris and David Blitzer, the owners of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers who would have to sell their stakes in Premier League club Crystal Palace to buy Chelsea. The reigning world and European champions could be sold for 3 billion pounds ($4 billion) — a record in world sports — given the interest in the west London club. Representatives for Hamilton said he planned to invest more than 10 million pounds ($13 million) in the bid being fronted by former Liverpool and British Airways chairman Martin Broughton and World Athletics president Sebastian Coe. Another bid has seen Boston Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca partner with Larry Tanenbaum, who has ownership stakes in Toronto with the NBA’s Raptors, the NHL’s Maple Leafs and the city’s MLS team. Peter Guber, a part-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, is also backing in the group. Another part-owner of the Dodgers, Todd Boehly, is leading another consortium hoping to be announced as the preferred bidder. REad: Juventus to Face Inter Milan in the Coppa Italia Final 2022 A New York-based merchant bank, the Raine Group, has been overseeing the sale process that was announced last month by Abramovich following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The oligarch has been sanctioned by Britain and the European Union over his links to Russian President Vladimir Putin with assets frozen, including Chelsea. Abramovich has been disqualified from running Chelsea by the Premier League and he cannot profit from the proceeds of the sale, which the British government must approve under terms of a license that allows the team to continue operating.

Serena Williams bit her upper lip. She held her left hand over her mouth and tried to hold back tears while getting ready to serve. It was the first set of her first-round match Tuesday at Wimbledon, and Williams knew this stay at a tournament where she has won seven of her 23 Grand Slam singles titles was about to end because she hurt her right leg when she lost her footing behind a baseline. Moments later, her legs buckled as she tried to change directions to chase a shot by her opponent, 100th-ranked Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus. Williams dropped to her knees, her head down on the grass. She used her racket to help her stand, but only so she could limp to the net to concede — just the second mid-match retirement at any Grand Slam tournament of her career and first since 1998. “I was heartbroken to have to withdraw today,” Williams said in a statement released by the tournament. Read: Serena Williams loses at French Open; Federer withdraws “Feeling the extraordinary warmth and support of the crowd today when I walked on — and off — the court,” she said, “meant the world to me.” Said Sasnovich: “She’s a great champion, and it’s (a) sad story.” Roger Federer surely articulated a common sentiment when told by a reporter what happened to Williams. “Oh, my God,” he said. “I can’t believe it.” Williams was serving while leading 3-1 at Centre Court — where the retractable roof was shut because of rain that forced the postponement of two dozen matches until Wednesday — when her left shoe seemed to lose its traction while she was hitting a forehand. Williams winced and stepped gingerly between points, clearly troubled. After dropping that game, she asked to visit with a trainer and took a medical timeout. She tried to continue playing. The crowd tried to offer support and encouragement. Eventually, the 39-year-old American couldn’t continue. The chair umpire climbed down to check on her, and they walked together up to the net; the score was 3-all, 15-30 when Williams stopped. Williams, who began the match with her right thigh heavily taped, raised her racket with right arm and put her left palm on her chest. Then she waved to the spectators. Officially, this goes in the books as only the second first-round Grand Slam exit of Williams’ career. The other came at the 2012 French Open, where she was beaten by Virginie Razzano. Shortly after that, Williams teamed up with coach Patrick Mouratoglou and began accumulating majors to eclipse Steffi Graf’s professional era record of 22 and move within one of Margaret Court’s all-era mark of 24. “All the best for her,” said Sasnovich, who reached the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2018 for her best Grand Slam result. Williams’ departure makes a wide-open women’s draw even more so. As it was, defending champion Simona Halep and four-time major champ Naomi Osaka withdrew before the tournament started. Read: Serena Williams, Osaka drawn in same half at Australian Open And so, even as her 40th birthday approaches in September, Williams was among the top contenders. With her best-in-the-game serve and stinging groundstrokes, she had made it to the past four finals when she entered Wimbledon — winning in 2015 and 2016, missing the tournament while pregnant in 2017, then finishing as the runner-up in 2018 and 2019 (it was canceled last year because of the pandemic). Williams was hardly the first player to find it difficult to deal with the slick grass over the first two days of main-draw play. In the match that preceded hers in the main stadium, eight-time Wimbledon champion Federer advanced when his opponent, Adrian Mannarino, injured his right knee late in the fourth set when he tumbled near the same spot Williams did. Federer was trailing two sets to one, but ahead 4-2 in the fourth, when Mannarino fell. He tried to continue but dropped eight of nine points when they resumed and called it quits. “Obviously,” Federer acknowledged, “he was the better player.” Novak Djokovic fell twice in the first set of his first-round victory Monday at Centre Court, too. “I do feel it feels a tad more slippery, maybe, under the roof. I don’t know if it’s just a gut feeling. You do have to move very, very carefully out there. If you push too hard in the wrong moments, you do go down,” Federer said. “I do feel it’s drier during the day. With the wind and all that stuff, it takes the moist out of the grass. But this is obviously terrible.” It was, by far, the most significant development Tuesday, when the winners included Williams’ older sister, 41-year-old Venus, 17-year-old Coco Gauff, reigning French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova and No. 1 seed Ash Barty in the women’s bracket, and No. 2 Daniil Medvedev, No. 4 Alexander Zverev and No. 10 Denis Shapovalov in the men’s. Sebastian Korda — a 20-year-old American whose father, Petr, won the 1998 Australian Open and whose sisters, No. 1-ranked Nelly and No. 13 Jessica, are on the LPGA Tour — made a successful Wimbledon debut, eliminating No. 15 seed Alex de Minaur 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5). Venus Williams accumulated 10 aces by smacking serves at up to 114 mph — not quite like the old days, but not too shabby, either. She drove forehands to corners. She made her way to the net for crisp volleys. Read:Coco Gauff sets up Osaka showdown in Australia; Serena wins And when it was all over, she celebrated her first Wimbledon match win since 2018 by raising her arms and yelling “Come on!” before reprising her familiar smile-and-twirl wave at No. 3 Court. A five-time singles champion at the All England Club who is making her 23rd appearance here, the elder Williams sister began her record-extending 90th Grand Slam tournament with her 90th career victory at Wimbledon, beating Mihaela Buzarnescu of Romania 7-5, 4-6, 6-3. Venus Williams is a former No. 1-ranked player who came into this week ranked 111th and having lost in the first or second round at the past eight majors. That included a first-round exit in 2019 at the All England Club against a then-15-year-old Gauff. “You can’t win them all. Life is about how you handle challenges. Each point is a challenge on the court. No one gives you anything,” said Venus Williams, who was diagnosed a decade ago with Sjogren’s syndrome, an autoimmune disease that can cause fatigue and joint pain. “I like to think I handle my challenges well.”

Majors are what matters at this stage for Serena Williams.