There was no fairytale ending for Serena Williams at the US Open.
The 23-time major singles champion was knocked out of the six-time tournament with a 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-1 loss to Ajla Tomljanović on Friday night in front of another impressive crowd of almost 24,000 spectators at Arthur. Ashe Stadium.
Williams, who entered her supposed farewell event ranked 605th with just one match win in nearly 15 months, had rolled back the years in her first week at Flushing Meadows with a series of vintage displays under the stadium lights largest tennis court in the world. This, a stirring back-and-forth encounter of high quality and intensity that unfolded over three hours, was in some ways his most exciting performance of all.
He battered Tomljanović with 115 mph sacks and flat bottom punches that exploded off the ropes. He came to the net and glided all over the court with a fluency that was thought gone and scored winners with guttural roars. But Tomljanović, a 29-year-old Australian who is ranked 46th, was unfazed by a crowd that cheered her faults and service errors, giving her best and maintaining her high level as Williams stiffened .
Trailing 3-5 in the first game with Williams serving for the set, the back-to-back Wimbledon quarter-finalist won four games in a row to take the early lead. Then, from deficits of 0-4 and 2-5 in the second, he fought back four points from seven before bowing out in a tiebreaker, but not before extending the middle act to a difficult 83 minutes and spending the his 40-year-old opponent. valuable energy reserves.
After Tomljanović broke immediately to open the decider, he rattled off six straight games to shut the door on the American star in what is expected to be the final tournament of his illustrious 27-year professional career. Even in death, Williams did not go quietly. In a final display of her indomitable fighting spirit and titanic self-belief, she fended off no less than five match points, each of which drew deafening roars, before finally landing a forehand in the sixth after 3 h 5 min.
“I tried, Alja only played a little [better]” Williams said, fighting back tears. “Thank you, Dad. I know you’re watching. Thank you, mother. It all started with my parents and they deserve everything.
“She wouldn’t be Serena if it wasn’t for Venus, so thank you, Venus. She’s the only reason Serena Williams ever existed.
“It’s been a fun trip. I am so grateful to all the people who have ever said ‘Go Serena’ in their life. You brought me here.”
Williams, who turns 41 in a few weeks and has played sparingly for the past two seasons due to a hamstring injury, looked well below her standard in a first-round loss at this year’s Wimbledon against a outside the top 100. appeared even further out of his depth in a pair of one-sided defeats in US Open tune-up events after announcing his plans to retire last month.
But her resurgent form in Queens has many questioning whether she is truly ready to go, no less than Williams herself, who has strongly hinted, but not definitively stated, that this year’s US Open will be their final event. Even after Friday’s game, she maintained her tactical strike when pressed and hinted at the next Grand Slam on the calendar: “I don’t know, I’m not thinking about it. I always loved Australia though.”
“Obviously I’m still capable, [but] it takes a lot more than that,” she added. “I’m ready to be a mom, to explore a different version of Serena.”
Tomljanovic, who advanced to the fourth round on Sunday against Liudmila Samsonova, reflected on the “surreal” moment in the immediate aftermath.
“I’m so sorry just because I love Serena as much as you do,” she said. “What he has done for the sport of tennis is incredible. I never thought I’d get a chance to play with her in her last game when I was a kid watching all those finals.”
She added: “I really blocked it out [the crowd] as much as he could It came to me a few times internally. I didn’t take it personally because, I mean, I’d be rooting for Serena too, if she wasn’t playing her. But it definitely wasn’t easy. There was no other way.”