NEW YORK (AP) — Serena Williams misplaced what is anticipated to be the final match of her transcendent tennis profession Friday evening, eradicated from the U.S. Open within the third spherical by Ajla Tomljanovic 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-1 earlier than an electrical crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Unwilling to go quietly, Williams staved off 5 match factors to delay the three-hours-plus proceedings, as some spectators stood to observe, digicam telephones on the prepared. Nobody — save, after all, Tomljanovic — wished this to finish.
It did on Tomljanovic’s sixth probability, when Williams netted a shot.
Williams turns 41 this month and not too long ago instructed the world that she is able to begin “evolving” away from her enjoying days — she expressed distaste for the phrase “retirement” — and whereas she has remained purposely obscure about whether or not this look at Flushing Meadows undoubtedly would symbolize her ultimate match, everybody assumes it is going to be.
If this was, certainly, the final hurrah, she took her followers on a thrill-a-minute throwback journey on the hard-court match that was the positioning of a half-dozen of her 23 Grand Slam championships. The primary got here in 1999 in New York, when Williams was simply 17.
However she faltered in opposition to Tomljanovic, a 29-year-old Australian who’s ranked forty sixth. Williams gave away leads in every set, together with the final, wherein she was up 1-0 earlier than dropping the ultimate six video games.
