Update on the US Open tennis 2022: Serena Williams beats No. 2 Anett Kontaveit and advances to the next round of the tournament
Maybe Anett Kontaveit would have defeated Serena Williams if the match had been held in Adelaide or Prague or any other stop on the WTA Tour.
There is no doubt that Serena is still Serena in New York and at Arthur Ashe Stadium, but she is still Serena. In my opinion, Kontaveit did not play badly at all. Serena did not get this match handed to her by the referee. As much as she might have thought, she had to earn it, with her powerful serve to return on target through much of the match, and she regularly destroyed Kontaveit’s second serve.
There was one set that she lost. She ramped up the intensity of her performance as a result of that.
In a word, “oh my goodness.”. “I have to give my all because this could be it for me,” Serena said in her postmatch interview when asked about her third-set mindset.
For her, this is not a typical tournament that she takes part in. As far as cementing her legacy is concerned, she does not need to do anything else. In addition to not wanting to lose, she’s also going to rev up her efforts when her back is against the wall, as it was when she was on the court for 100 minutes. In spite of that, after years – or perhaps decades, really – of playing the underdog with a target on her back, she’s enjoying the pressure-free days of being an underdog.
As far as I am concerned, I have nothing to lose.”
In addition, there is probably a bit more to win than to lose.
That’s all there is to say for tonight’s Serena Show. On Friday, she will be back in action in the singles section. Nonetheless, she will also be back on this same stage – the same time, the same place – Thursday night as she and her sister Venus begin their journey in the doubles section of the tournament.
Despite pulling off a major upset against No. 2-ranked Anett Kontaveit at Arthur Ashe Stadium, Serena Williams’ farewell tour at the US Open did not come to an end on Wednesday night.
It was Williams who dominated the third and final set, 6-2, after Kontaveit had won by the same score in the first set. It seemed that Williams needed a walk off the court to regroup after looking a bit gassed on the court, and that was exactly what she needed to do.
After winning the opening two games of the third set, Williams came out firing in the fourth set, taking the first two games in her favor. Despite Kontaveit winning the third game on a breakpoint, Williams returned the favor by winning the fifth game, giving herself a commanding 4-1 advantage over Kontaveit.
Kontaveit would win the next game, but it would be all Williams from there on out, as she would dominate to a 6-2 victory as she was showered with roars from her fans in Queens.
In the aftermath of the match, Williams said, “I am loving this crowd,” with a smile on her face.
Oh my goodness, it’s really wonderful. There’s still a little left in me, so I’ll see how it goes.”
In the third round, Williams will face Australian Ajla Tomljanovic, who beat Evgeniya Rodina in three sets on a separate court on Wednesday night in an attempt to prove that she still has some left in the tank.
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The match began with both players going back and forth, trading games with the ball in their courts until Williams finally notched a break point to make it 5-4, giving her the chance to take the first set.
Nevertheless, Kontaveit was able to break Williams’ next service to make it 5-5 in her favor. Eventually, the set would end in a tiebreak, 7-6, with Williams prevailing on an ace in the tiebreak to win the match.
Despite this, Williams didn’t look the same in that second set, and she admitted that she needed to kick things up a notch in order to win.
In all honesty, after I lost the second set, I thought to myself, “Oh my goodness, I really need to give my best effort because this might be it,” she told the newspaper.
In spite of the fact that she was going up against the No. 2 ranked player in the world, Williams is not considered the greatest of all time for nothing.
“Well, I’m pretty good at playing the piano,” she said with a smile on her face. The best thing I can do is play tennis. I love a challenge, I love rising to a challenge. I haven’t played as many matches as I would like, but I have been practicing a lot. …The last couple of matches here in New York have gone very well for me.”
In the first two rounds of the US Open, Venus Williams has a record of 42-0.
While the 40-year-old tennis player will live to play singles another day, in what is likely to be the last Grand Slam tournament of her illustrious career, the 40-year-old is enjoying not having an X on her back since no one is going after her title at the top as it has been since 1999.
The truth is that I am just looking at it as a bonus at the moment,” she said. There is nothing to prove, there is nothing to win, and there is absolutely nothing to lose, so I have nothing to prove.
“I’m just Serena Williams.”
As well as joining her sister, Venus Williams, on Thursday night for their first doubles match since the 2018 French Open, Williams will also be accompanied on the court by her sister, Serena Williams, for her match against Tomljanovic on Sept. 2. In the doubles match, they will face Lucie Hradecka and Linda Noskova who represent the Czech Republic.