Serena Williams’ marketing campaign at the USA Open 2022 ended when she confronted a 5-7, 7-6(4), 1-6 defeat to Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic within the 3rd spherical of ladies’s singles. Serena, who had introduced previous that the USA Open may well be her ultimate aggressive look, used to be fierce during her marketing campaign on the main, and remained gritty as ever during her 3rd spherical defeat to the Forty sixth-ranked Australian. In truth, when requested if she would wish to rethink her choice to retire from the sport, Williams stated, “you never know,” hinting there may be nonetheless some tennis left in her.
But, if this used to be, certainly, the ultimate hurrah, she ensured her lovers had an exhilarating throwback experience at the USA Open the place she has received half-dozen of her 23 Grand Slam titles. The first of them got here when she used to be 17. On Saturday, on the other hand, Williams – in spite of main in all 3 units at one level – squandered the merit in two. In the overall set, she used to be main 1-0 sooner than conceding six successive video games.
On one level in the second one set, Williams’ toes were given tangled and he or she fell to the court docket, losing her racket. She completed with 51 unforced mistakes, 21 greater than Tomljanovic.
Williams let a 5-3 lead vanish within the first set. She did one thing equivalent in the second one, gifting away edges of 4-0 and 5-2, and requiring 5 set issues to in the end put that one in her pocket. From 4-all within the tiebreaker, which means Williams used to be 3 issues from defeat, she pounded a 117 mph ace, hit a forehand winner to cap a 20-stroke change, then watched Tomljanovic push a forehand lengthy.
Momentum gave the impression to be on Williams’ facet. But she may no longer pull off this sort of comeback she did such a lot of occasions over time.
“Oh, my God, thank you so much. You guys were amazing today. I tried,” Williams told the audience, hands on her hips, before mentioning her parents, her husband, and her older sister, Venus, a seven-time major champion.
“I wouldn’t be Serena if there wasn’t Venus. So thank you, Venus,” she said. “She’s the only reason that Serena Williams ever existed.”
