The 23-time singles champion overcame early nerves and a missed serve to win 6-3, 6-3 against Danka Kovinić in her US Open first-round match at Arthur Ashe Stadium, setting up what is expected to be a final her tournament. glittering professional career of 27 years on a winning note. Williams, who announced her plans to retire earlier this month, came into the headlines on Monday night in Queens ranked 605th in the world and having won a singles match in just 450 days. But the American star came through with her 107th victory at the six-time tournament in front of a sell-out crowd of more than 23,000 who burst into the atmosphere of a grand-ticket final – with thousands more watching on a giant screen from the fountain outside from the field. “When I left, the reception was really overwhelming,” Williams said afterward. “It was loud and I could feel it in my chest. It’s a feeling I’ll never forget.” Williams, who turns 41 next month, faced constant pressure on her serve from the start, making five double faults in her first three service games and facing break points in each of them. But he found a surge in the latter stages of the first set seesaw, hitting 11 straight points capped by a break at love for 5-3 before serving out the first set in 55 minutes. The American’s serve only improved from there and Kovinic, the 27-year-old from Montenegro, ranked 80th, was unable to match her level. When her opponent scored a backhand from the baseline on match point after 1 hour 40 minutes, Williams raised her hands to a deafening roar of applause. The road doesn’t get any easier from here. Williams advances to face Estonian No. 2 Anett Kontaveit in a second-round match on Wednesday. She has also entered doubles with her older sister, Venus, with their first match scheduled for Wednesday or Thursday. Williams’ winter career prospects have been in limbo during her 12 months away from the tour between first-round defeats at last year’s Wimbledon and this year’s Wimbledon. But her compromised form has come under intense scrutiny in the three weeks since she announced her “evolution” away from tennis in a first-person essay published in Vogue’s September issue: a run that included a 6-2 defeat , 6-4. to Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic in Toronto and immediately followed that with a 6-4, 6-0 at the hands of Emma Radukanu in Cincinnati. But Williams returned the favor to an adoring crowd on her return to Flushing Meadows, moving the court better than she had in years and raising her level in the pressure points, securing at least one more appearance on the same court where she won Venus to the family’s maiden grand slam title in 1999 before fielding a congratulatory phone call from US President Bill Clinton, who took over Monday’s proceedings from the court. Williams’ likely final match of her career overshadowed all other action on the courts on the first day of the final grand slam of the season. After a video tribute narrated by Queen Latifah played inside the stadium, Williams walked out of the tunnel to Kanye West’s Diamonds From Sierra Leone in a scene more reminiscent of a boxer’s walk than a traditional player entrance for a first-round match. Spike Lee officiated the coin toss, and dozens of celebrities dotted the crowd, including Martina Navratilova and Mike Tyson, who sat next to each other in the court’s president’s box. The unusual flamboyance led to early nerves on both sides of the net, but it was Williams who stood first before displaying a champion’s final kick. Afterwards, Williams, who has hinted strongly but not definitively said this year’s US Open will be her last, remained coy when pressed on the matter. “Yeah, I was pretty vague about that, right?” he said with a smile. “I’ll stay vague because you never know.”
