Serena Williams still has at least one match left in her professional tennis career. After previously announcing the 2022 U.S. Open would be her last tournament, the 23-time major champion dispatched of 27-year-old Montenegro native Danka Kovinić in straight sets, 6–3, 6–3, on Monday night. Sports Illustrated’s Jon Wertheim and Chris Almeida discuss how Williams played in what could have been her swan song and what the expectations for her should be going forward.
Chris Almeida: Serena Williams is not done yet. She made her first-round match look like, well, a first-round match. It's very different than the one that we saw at Wimbledon. She got off to a little bit of a nervy start—it seemed like she was feeling the moment a little bit when she threw in a couple of double faults in that first game. But after that, she seemed to turn it on. She served very well. She was moving just fine, hitting the ball like she always did. Given, this was against Danka Kovinić, who has never been inside the world’s top 40. In the next round, she’s got the second seed, Anett Kontaveit, waiting for her. So things are going to get a lot harder quickly. But tonight, she gave the crowd what they wanted.
Jon Wertheim: It was a convincing Serena Williams impersonation. Keep in mind, in Cincinnati, she lost her last set before this 0–6 to Emma Raducanu, a player who hasn't won more than 50 percent of her matches this year. So, going into this, there was a bit of a vibe of: let's hope for a competitive match. She was great! I think we need to still manage expectations—I don’t think she’s going to win the tournament, but she looks like exactly what you said. This was a Serena Williams first-round match.
