Serena Williams was the story of the sports world during the first week of this year’s U.S. Open, making a surprise run to the third round before losing to Australian Ajla Tomljanović in what’s believed to be her final career match. Unsurprisingly, the hype surrounding Williams’s run drew in quite a sizable viewing audience.
A record 4.8 million viewers tuned in for the match, the most for any tennis match in ESPN history. The previous high came during the 2012 Wimbledon men’s final between Roger Federer and Andy Murray, the network announced Tuesday.
Williams, 40, has not explicitly or definitively said that she will never play professional tennis again, but strongly suggested as much throughout her U.S. Open run. Following her third-round defeat, she again didn’t completely rule out ever playing again but acknowledged that this likely was the end.
“I don’t know. I’m not thinking about that,” Williams said. “I always did love Australia, though [smiling]. But yeah, you know what, I’ve come a long way since last year at Wimbledon. Just not sure if that was my last moment or not. Making it a different moment I think is much better. It takes a lot of work to get here. Clearly I’m still capable. It takes a lot more than that.”
In what was just her seventh singles match of 2022, Williams’s curtain call gave fans around the world one last glimpse of the revered champion on one of the sport’s biggest stages. Her hard-fought match against Tomljanović lasted three hours and five minutes, marking the longest U.S. Open match in Williams’s career.
