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    Serena Williams Prepared a Little Differently for This U.S. Open

    Analytics, scouting first-time opponents, additional coaching input, new footwork drills and treating doubles like practice — so far it’s adding up to winning.Follow live as Serena Williams plays Ajla Tomljanovic at the U.S. Open.An underdog with the oddsmakers against the No. 2 seed, Anett Kontaveit, on Wednesday, Serena Williams will be back on familiar ground as the favorite against the unseeded Ajla Tomljanovic on Friday.The word is out, expedited by the roars in Arthur Ashe Stadium: Williams has worked her way with great speed back into form and into the third round of her final U.S. Open.It is remarkable but not necessarily astonishing, even a few weeks from her turning 41.“We can all ride a bike at an older age, and once the jitters are gone, you can even ride a bike without holding the handlebars,” said Sven Groeneveld, the leading coach who works with Bianca Andreescu and long coached Maria Sharapova.“It’s like walking for Serena,” Groeneveld said. “She has played tennis 90 percent of her life.”Williams has no shortage of positive memories to draw on from her younger years of pulling out of tailspins in a hurry.In 2007, she came into the Australian Open unseeded and ranked 81st, having played just five tournaments in the previous year and losing early in her lone warm-up event.But she soon locked in, defeating six seeded players, including the top-ranked Sharapova in the final.In 2012, Williams was beaten in the first round of the French Open by Virginie Razzano, a Frenchwoman ranked 111th. It was Williams’s earliest defeat to date in a major tournament, and it left her reeling and unusually open to change.She brought on a new coaching consultant, Patrick Mouratoglou, and though she played no tuneup events before arriving at Wimbledon, she quickly worked her way into devastating form. She won the title and then played what is widely considered the best tennis of her career to win the Olympic gold medal in singles and also in doubles with her sister Venus at the London Games on the same grass courts of the All England Club.That was, beyond doubt, a no-handlebars moment, but she is coming from even further back this time: playing no competitive tennis for nearly a year, arriving at the U.S. Open having won just one of four singles matches this season and ranked, strange but true, No. 605.“I just think because Serena is Serena and is a great athlete, that the more practice and the more practice matches she gets, she can play her way into an event,” said Kathy Rinaldi, the United States King Cup captain. “You’ve seen her do it in the past, and if you watched the match against Kontaveit, her movement to me got better and better by the third set, and I just think a great athlete can do that.”Serena Williams at the U.S. OpenThe U.S. Open was very likely the tennis star’s last professional tournament after a long career of breaking boundaries and obliterating expectations.Glorious Goodbye: Even as Serena Williams faced career point, she put on a gutsy display of the power and resilience that have kept fans cheering for nearly 30 years.The Magic Ends: Zoom into this composite photo to see details of Williams’s final moment on Ashe Stadium at this U.S. Open.Her Fans: We asked readers to share their memories of watching Williams play and the emotions that she stirred. There was no shortage of submissions.Sisterhood on the Court: Since Williams and her sister Venus burst onto the tennis scene in the 1990s, their legacies have been tied to each other’s.Some fitness coaches for other players were still shaking their heads on Thursday at their mind’s-eye images of Williams’s struggling to cover court at the National Bank Open in Toronto and the Western and Southern Open in Mason, Ohio: tournaments in which she lost last month in early rounds.“The change in a month is incredible,” said Maciej Ryszczuk, the fitness coach of the world No. 1, Iga Swiatek.But Williams said she felt her level in practice was often quite high as she returned to the tour, but that this was not carrying over into matches. The exception was the Western and Southern Open, where she was dealing with what several people had said was a flare-up of knee tendinitis: something that neither she nor her staff has confirmed.Williams during her first-round loss at the Western and Southern Open in August.Jeff Dean/Associated PressBut Eric Hechtman, Williams’s new coach, said the platform for the success so far in New York was in place.“The shotmaking was there, and the serve was there,” he said in an interview after her victory over Kontaveit. “She was actually moving well in practice, so in New York, we added in some more side-to-side running drills, and I think that’s helped.”So have the sellout crowds of nearly 24,000 in Ashe Stadium that are entirely in Williams’s corner.“That stadium is so big, and once you pack it in like that with a bunch of fired-up people, it’s a game changer,” Hechtman said. “It takes a little bit of time to get some rhythm, but it’s starting to come together. It was a great win against Kontaveit, but it’s still just the second round. None of us are getting carried away.”A loss against Tomljanovic would actually bring Williams full circle. She also lost in the third round in her first U.S. Open singles appearance in 1998 and has never failed to go farther in her 19 appearances since then: winning six titles.But the expectations are different this year. Given her recent level of play, the third round feels like an achievement. But the challenge as Williams goes deeper in the tournament will be to manage the load that comes with stacking up singles matches and doubles matches. She played doubles with her sister Venus at a tournament for the first time in more than four years, losing in the first round Thursday to Lucie Hradecka and Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic, 7-6 (5), 6-4.Unlike regular tour events, the Grand Slam tournaments allow a day of rest for women’s singles players between each round of singles, with occasional exceptions. Unlike the men, who play best-of-five-set matches, the women play best-of-three-set matches.But playing doubles on what would normally be a recovery day could still create a greater risk for the 40-year-old Williams. The last time she and Venus played doubles in a major — at the 2018 French Open — Williams withdrew from singles before the fourth round with a pectoral injury aggravated during a doubles match.Venus and Serena Williams last played doubles together at the 2018 French Open.Christophe Simon/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesMouratoglou, who had counseled against playing both events because Williams was returning from a long layoff, was displeased, and Williams had not played singles and doubles with her sister at a major again until now.But in what is most likely Williams’s final tournament, this sounds like a heart-over-head decision.“I feel like it’s been very important for her to be a part of this,” Williams had said of Venus. “She’s my rock. I’m super excited to play with her and just do that again. It’s been a long time.”Hechtman, who also coaches Venus Williams, said he fully supported the decision. “I think it’s great she’s playing doubles,” he said of Serena. “It’s not just the doubles, it’s the fact you get the reps on serves and return and play points and play with the crowd again.”Hechtman had not pushed for Serena to play doubles in her warm-up events.“This is a different situation,” he said. “It’s her last tournament. It’s a Grand Slam and you have the day off in between singles matches, and normally you practice on that day, so instead you are playing doubles. I talked to her a little bit about it in Cincy, and it was like, ‘You know what? This totally makes sense.’”What also made sense to Hechtman was the decision to play tournaments in singles heading into the U.S. Open, which Williams did not do before Wimbledon, where she lost in the first round to Harmony Tan, an unseeded Frenchwoman.“I personally thought we were very ready for Wimbledon,” he said. “The only thing we didn’t have was those matches. Even if she was a little banged-up in Cincy, I think those tournaments were crucial to getting to the level she’s hit here. You can’t say definitively they made the difference, but I would say they were very important.”Scouting and preparation have also been important in New York. She had not faced Danka Kovinic, her first-round opponent, or Kontaveit and has not played Tomljanovic either. Hechtman said he and Williams had been getting input on opponents from the United States Tennis Association’s analytics team, working closely with Rinaldi and David Ramos, a director for performance analytics.“It helps us see clearly how Serena’s strengths match up against opponents’ weaknesses, and we go from there,” Hechtman said.Hechtman said he also welcomed the arrival of Rennae Stubbs, an ESPN analyst, coach and former No. 1 doubles player, who has been providing counsel in New York.“They’ve been friends for a long time, and the more positive people — this is a very emotional state — the better it is,” he said. “I’m all for it. Look, I’m here to win so anything that’s going to help us get over that mountaintop.” More

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    Is Andy Murray About to Become Andy Murray Again?

    Like Serena Williams, Andy Murray, finally healthy and fit, has given glimpses of yesteryear at the U.S. Open. Unlike Williams, he has no intention of walking away.Follow live as Serena Williams plays Ajla Tomljanovic at the U.S. Open.A Grand Slam champion, one of the great players of this era, battles back from the brink of retirement and major physical setbacks to challenge the best players in the world once more in the face of widespread — and justified — skepticism.It is the dominant narrative of the first week of the 2022 U.S. Open, with Serena Williams defying the dual tolls of time and deterioration to bulldoze her way into the third round.But she isn’t the only one.In his first two matches Andy Murray once again became the player no one really wanted to face, 10 years after he became the first man from Britain to win a Grand Slam singles championship since Fred Perry in 1936. Three years ago, he said he was flirting with retirement because the pain in his hip was so severe he struggled with simple tasks like putting on his shoes and socks.Murray was unseeded, has just one full human hip, and despite a desperate desire to reach the top 30 ahead of the U.S. Open, he endured a poor-to-middling summer on North America’s hard courts. He is 35 years old but seems to age several months each time he takes the court, judging by the furrowed brow and generally dour expression he usually wears from the moment he strikes the first ball. That’s to say nothing of the cranky dialogue he has with himself through nearly every game.And there was plenty of that Friday as Murray endured a frustrating — for him at least — four-set, 3 hour 47 minute loss to Matteo Berrettini of Italy, who beat him 6-4, 6-4, 7-6(1), 6-3.The loss came at a moment when Murray had grown generally pleased with his recent progress in this late-in-tennis-life attempt to recapture the magic that once made him the world’s top-ranked player during the meat of the careers of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, someone he has known and played against since they were top teenage juniors in Europe still years away from needing to shave.“My movement around the court is good right now,” Murray said after beating Emilio Nava, the 20-year-old American qualifier, in four sets Wednesday. “I feel like it’s not that easy for guys to hit winners past me, and I’m defending in the corners much better than I was 12 months ago here.”Even this version of Murray — the one who has been hovering around 50th in the world rankings for several months and who was outside the top 100 as recently as January — was a heavy favorite in that match. The win earned him a spot in the third round of the U.S. Open for the first time in six years.His first-round win over Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina, the 24th seed, was far less certain, given his recent form. It ended up being his first straight-sets win in a Grand Slam tournament in five years.Berrettini, the 13th seed, a finalist at Wimbledon last year with a hammer-like serve and forehand, presented a different level of challenge. Murray is very familiar with both shots. He and Berrettini often practice together, including a testosterone-fueled set two weeks ago as they prepared for this tournament. Not that it matters, but Berrettini said they were all even at 5-5 and played a tiebreaker, which he won, because other players had reserved the court and were waiting. (Yes, this happens to the pros, as well.)“I always look for players that have a strong energy, that really want to practice hard, because that’s what I like to do,” Berrettini said. “He’s one of those.”Berrettini, 26, is the sort of younger player at the top of his powers that Murray has rarely been able to get past during his five-year journey through debilitating pain and rehabilitation from two hip surgeries, the second a major procedure to resurface the top of the thigh bone and replace the hip socket and cartilage with a metal shell.Just when Murray seems on the cusp of the breakthrough he has sought long after many players with his résumé would have packed it in, some young buck like Berrettini gets on him, often in the early rounds of a tournament. With a ranking as low as his, the protection of a high seeding remains elusive.The losses create a dispiriting cycle. Without matches and wins, he can’t improve his ranking, currently No. 51. And without a higher ranking, he has to leave his fate up to the luck of the draw. If it doesn’t go his way and he loses a hard-fought early match to a big-time opponent, his ranking does not improve, which often leads to more draws with opponents who have proved too tough.There would seem to be every reason to not deal with the headaches and frustrations that come with being an aging, formerly sublime professional. For so long, Murray’s creativity, touch and ability to spin the ball every which way, combined with his blazing speed, power, and never-give-up defense, made for can’t-miss tennis.Murray, right, in a practice session with the coach Ivan Lendl ahead of the U.S. Open.Julian Finney/Getty ImagesHe has earned nearly $63 million in prize money, plus tens of millions more in sponsorships. Prince Charles knighted him in 2019. In Britain, he’s basically a Beatle. He has four children. It eats at him that he is saddling his wife, Kim Sears, with the bulk of the responsibility of caring for the children while he trots across the globe chasing what he once had, especially when he’s winning only a little more than 60 percent of his matches.He is also not the type to live in denial.“At times this year I have, you know, not felt amazing in terms of where my game has been at,” he said Wednesday.Entering Friday, his body was where he wanted it to be. Two years ago he could barely walk after a five-set, first-round win. Recovery, even from the toughest matches, is no longer an issue and he does not think about his hip much. And then he gives a top player all he can handle, and the thing he wants feels not so far away, even if it might be.Murray had just four chances to break Berrettini’s serve Friday. Berrettini had 15 chances to break Murray’s.Murray has brought Ivan Lendl, the eight-time Grand Slam champion of the 1980s, back into his coaching ranks. Lendl was there when Murray was at his best. He preaches a simple brand of tennis, pushing Murray to unleash his power and finish points when the opportunity presents itself instead of complicating matters with trickery and deception. Don’t think — just hit.But even the best mechanic needs a car in prime condition to be successful, something Murray knows as well as anyone.“I’ve got a metal hip,” Murray said after Friday’s loss. “It’s not easy playing with that. It’s really difficult. I’m surprised I’m still able to compete with guys that are right up at the top of the game. Matches like this, I’m really proud that I have worked myself into a position where I’m able to do that.”It is quite a feat. In fact, Murray considers himself something of a lab rat in an experiment (though he has no idea when it will end). A few years back, some very smart people told him he would once again be able to play tennis but not compete professionally. Now he is trying to see just how wrong he can prove them have been.“That was nonsense,” he said, as he looked forward to playing in team competitions for Britain later in the year. “I want to see how close I can get back to the top of the game.” More

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    Wu Yibing’s US Open Run Could Influence Tennis in China

    Wu Yibing became the first Chinese man to reach the third round of a Grand Slam since 1946. He says it’s his “responsibility” to pick up where the retired champion Li Na left off in growing the game.Follow live as Serena Williams plays Ajla Tomljanovic at the U.S. Open.Shortly after Wu Yibing made tennis history on Wednesday by becoming the first Chinese man to reach the third round of the U.S. Open, a tournament that dates to 1881, he was informed that his name was on fire on Chinese social media platforms like Weibo and WeChat.Fans and admirers in China were spreading the word that Wu, a past U.S. Open junior champion, had just beaten Nuno Borges of Portugal in a tough five-set match that lasted nearly four hours. Not only was Wu the first Chinese man to advance into the third round at the U.S. Open, he became the first to reach the third round of a Grand Slam event since Kho Sin-Khie, an Indonesian-born player who competed under the Chinese flag, did it at Wimbledon in 1946.As a groundbreaking player with aspirations to elevate men’s tennis in China, just as the retired two-time major champion Li Na did for Chinese women, Wu, 22, was asked what that kind of social media attention back home meant to him.“That I’m a good-looking guy,” he quipped, eliciting uproarious laughter from reporters at a late-night news conference.That may be true, but Wu has other talents that could help make him one of the most influential players in the game. Primarily, he is very good at tennis, with a complete arsenal of shots and the court savvy to squeeze the best out of his ability. And his answer to that question illustrated he has an engaging personality that could also help draw others into his orbit.Serena Williams at the U.S. OpenThe U.S. Open was very likely the tennis star’s last professional tournament after a long career of breaking boundaries and obliterating expectations.Glorious Goodbye: Even as Serena Williams faced career point, she put on a gutsy display of the power and resilience that have kept fans cheering for nearly 30 years.The Magic Ends: Zoom into this composite photo to see details of Williams’s final moment on Ashe Stadium at this U.S. Open.Her Fans: We asked readers to share their memories of watching Williams play and the emotions that she stirred. There was no shortage of submissions.Sisterhood on the Court: Since Williams and her sister Venus burst onto the tennis scene in the 1990s, their legacies have been tied to each other’s.“He is very outgoing and loves to joke around,” said Gerardo Azcurra, his coach. “He is not afraid to talk.”Wu, playing a shot in Monday’s first round at the U.S. Open, trained at the I.M.G. Academy in Florida.Sarah Stier/Getty ImagesBut as much as Wu enjoys kidding around, he also understands his place in the game. He knows he is in a position to influence the way an entire sport is perceived by millions of people in China, and how fast it can grow. Along with his friends Zhang Zhizhen, 25, and the 17-year-old rising star Shang Juncheng, he is part of the core of China’s emerging men’s tennis hopes to not only to play well on tour, but to develop the game back home.“I have the responsibility to do it, and with my ability, it will always be part of my career,” Wu said. “I think it can really help kids to love tennis, to pay attention to the sport. Before Li Na, we did not have many tennis facilities in China. But then it got more popular and hopefully I can bring even more tennis to China.”Wu began playing as a young boy in Hangzhou, China. His father, Wu Kang, was an amateur boxer and felt his son needed to get more physically fit. Wu initially tried badminton, but the net was too high and he could not get the shuttlecock over it. So, he settled on tennis, where the nets are lower and the aspirations higher.Within a few years, Wu was winning local tournaments and then regional ones. By the time he was 16, he was competing internationally.He first drew the attention of broad swathes of Chinese tennis fans when he won the U.S. Open junior tournament in 2017, in both singles and doubles. It was a breakthrough that earned him an invitation to train at the I.M.G. Academy in Bradenton, Fla., to work on his game and learn English — which he did extremely well. It was also where he first met Azcurra.Azcurra left I.M.G. three years ago to coach privately, and Wu asked in January if they could reunite. Wu moved into Azcurra’s house in Bradenton and they have formed a productive relationship, with Wu winning four lower-level tournaments this year.“He has had some little injuries, some illness,” Azcurra said, “but every time he comes back stronger. He injured his ankle, came back and won a Futures tournament. He got sick, but came back and won a Challenger.”Wu, Zhang Zhizhen, pictured, and the 17-year-old rising star Shang Juncheng are part of the core of China’s emerging men’s tennis hopes.Geoff Burke/USA Today Sports, via ReutersOn Friday, the stakes will grow exponentially when Wu plays Daniil Medvedev of Russia, the No. 1 seed and defending champion, in Arthur Ashe Stadium. It will be the biggest match that Wu, ranked No. 174, has ever played. In a dizzying few months with Azcurra, he has gone from the outskirts of the tennis tour to its largest stadium.In April, Wu was ranked 1,738th and playing in Orange Park, Fla. In July he was playing a Challenger event (a minor league tournament) in Rome, Ga. But he did well enough to earn a chance to qualify for the U.S. Open, which he did, and now he will face the top player in the world under the lights in Ashe.Wu shrugged when asked how daunting the challenge will be against Medvedev.“All tennis players watch his matches, we know how good he is,” Wu said during an interview Thursday afternoon. “I respect him, but when we are on the court, we are opponents competing against each other. None of the rankings matter. I want to show that I’m not scared or whatever. It’s just a match.”Presumably, many people in China will be paying attention to how Wu fares, both on the court and on social media. He has a Weibo account, but Li Xi, his agent, jokes that he has only about 150,000 followers, a relatively small number in a country as populous as China.“You need to post more,” she said with a laugh.“That’s not my job,” he responded.His job is to play tennis, win matches and give the occasional interview. So, when a reporter asked if there was anything else he would like to add, Wu smiled.“That’s enough,” he said. “I’ve already given you a lot of information.” More

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    All Eyes Are on Serena, but What Are Venus’s Plans?

    Since Serena Williams announced in August that she plans to retire after this year’s U.S. Open, all eyes have been on her and what has turned into her farewell tour. But what’s next for Venus Williams is unclear.Venus Williams, who at 42 is about 15 months older than Serena Williams, has been vague about her plans for her future. Before this year’s U.S. Open, which she was able to enter after receiving wild cards for both the singles and the doubles draw, it had been some time since Venus Williams had played in a Grand Slam.After losing in the second round of Wimbledon to Ons Jabeur of Tunisia last year, Williams played one match in the WTA’s Chicago Women’s Open in August 2021, losing in the first round, and then left tennis for nearly a year.She returned to the sport last month, and struggled in three tournaments, losing in the first rounds of the Citi Open in Washington, the National Bank Open in Toronto, and the Western & Southern Open in Mason, Ohio.“It was definitely the longest time I have been away from tennis and been without a racket in my hand,” she said after she lost to Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium in straight sets in the first round of the singles draw on Tuesday. “It was a completely new experience for me, getting a racket back in my hand and trying to acclimate as quick as possible to be ready for the U.S. Open, which was not easy.”Williams last played in a Grand Slam final at the Australian Open in 2017, where she lost to her sister, and last won a Grand Slam title in 2008 at Wimbledon, where she beat her sister. Her time away from tennis and the winner’s stage has left Williams ranked at No. 1,504 in the world. In 2002, she was ranked No. 1 in singles. Her low ranking means that to continue to play in tournaments, Williams will need to rely heavily on wild cards.At her postmatch news conference on Tuesday, Williams was asked about whether she also had any plans to retire like her sister.“Right now I’m just focused on the doubles,” she said.When the Williams sisters walked off the court in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Thursday night after losing their first-round doubles match to Lucie Hradecka and Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic, it could have been the last time the sisters left a court together. Or was it?The sisters did not have a postmatch news conference, but when asked on Tuesday what keeps her motivated, Williams was short and quick to reply.“Three letters is W-I-N,” she said. “That’s it. Very simple.”Since Serena Williams announced in a Vogue cover story that she planned to evolve “away from tennis, toward other things that are important,” she has sprinkled some uncertainty about her own retirement plans.“I’ve been pretty vague about it, right?” Serena Williams said, smiling after her first-round win against Danka Kovinic. “I’m going to stay vague because you never know.” More

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    Venus and Serena William Lose First Round Doubles Match at US Open

    What was supposed to be a prime time, packed-house celebration of the Williams sisters at the U.S. Open turned into something rather less festive than planned on Thursday night.The rain cloud was the Czech doubles team of Lucie Hradecka and Linda Noskova, who unlike Venus and Serena Williams have not won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles together.In fact the 37-year-old Hradecka and the 17-year-old Noskova had never played a pro tournament together before until walking out into the cavernous confines of Arthur Ashe Stadium for their first-round match against Team Williams.But experience did not prove decisive as the Czechs, who clicked quickly, prevailed in a tight first set and then closed out their 7-6 (5), 6-4 victory and likely put a downbeat end to the Williamses’ phenomenal career as a team at this level.Exhibition tours and even comebacks may await, but this certainly felt like the end of an era for one of the greatest doubles teams in the game’s history. It came quickly after the Williamses had succeeded in rallying from a 1-4 deficit in the second set to get back to 4-4. And it came in an atmosphere that was comparatively subdued despite the sellout crowd of nearly 24,000: quite a contrast with the rock festival atmosphere at Serena Williams’s night singles matches in this year’s tournament as she has made a stirring run to the third round in her farewell U.S. Open.Serena Williams at the U.S. OpenThe U.S. Open could be the tennis star’s last professional tournament after a long career of breaking boundaries and obliterating expectations.A Magical Run: As her successes on the field prove, Serena Williams did not come to New York to receive a ceremonial send-off, but to put her best on the line against the world’s finest players.In the Player’s Box: Fans at Arthur Ashe Stadium have been catching glimpses of her family and entourage. Here is a look at who has been in attendance to support her.Her Fans: We asked readers to share their memories of watching Williams play and the emotions that she stirred. There was no shortage of submissions.Sisterhood on the Field: Since Williams and her sister Venus burst onto the tennis scene in the 1990s, their legacies have been tied to one another.But though Serena Williams was often effective and decisive on Thursday night, she could not hold serve to keep the sisters in the match at 4-5. At 15-40, Hradecka poached and knocked away a backhand volley winner to close out the victory, and the sisters were soon packing up in a hurry and exiting the court without an on-court interview (or signing autographs despite all the souvenir balls being extended in their direction as they headed for the tunnel).Lucie Hradecka and Linda Noskova had never played together in a pro tournament before but managed to win.Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesThe Czechs ended up with the floor and the interview with ESPN analyst Mary Joe Fernandez.“I’m still in shock that we won because played the first time with each other,” Hradecka said, addressing the crowd, which seemed rather stunned as well. “I think we did a very good job, and I’m so sorry for you that we beat them, but we are so happy we did it.”Though the evening did not deliver the anticipated enchantment (unless you were Czech), it was not entirely bereft of pomp and circumstance. Before the sisters took the court, a video tribute was played on the big screens inside the stadium, showing footage of them through the decades. But there was no post-match ceremony planned, win or lose, and the sisters did not look much in the mood for public speaking after their straight-sets defeat and even declined to give a news conference, which has not been unusual for them in 2022.If this was indeed the last time the fabulous Williams sisters share the same court in an official match, it was surely not the way they, or just about anybody else, envisaged it. Their careers have been so routinely cinematic, full of surprise twists and revivals, that a straightforward opening-round defeat seems out of place in the story arc.But pro tennis is a sport, not scripted drama, and the anticlimax takes nothing away from their collective achievements. The Williams sisters were quality over quantity. They rarely played together on tour, restricting most of their appearances to the majors and the Olympics. But their strike rate was phenomenal, particularly when they reached a championship match.They were 14-0 in Grand Slam women’s doubles finals and 3-0 in Olympic gold-medal matches together. That is a statistic that will be noted (and tweeted) for years to come, and though it was a downer of a finish, it was still a fitting, full-circle place to finish.The Williamses played in Ashe Stadium the year that it opened in 1997, with Venus reaching the singles final as an unseeded 17-year-old and 15-year-old Serena making her Grand Slam debut in doubles with Venus. They had white beads in their hair and braces on their teeth, and though they were dynamic and exuberant, they were beaten in the first round by Jill Hetherington and Kathy Rinaldi, who would later coach both sisters as the captain for the United States’ team in the Billie Jean King Cup.There was a video tribute played on the stadium big screens before the match, but no post-match ceremony.Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times“They’re both such different personalities but they’re both just such tremendous champions,” said Rinaldi, who was back in Ashe Stadium on Thursday night.The sisters went on to win two U.S. Open titles together but had not played together at a major since the 2018 French Open. But at Serena’s request, they put the band back together in New York. Serena, who turns 41 this month, has announced her intention to “evolve away” from tennis sometime after the U.S. Open, while Venus, 42, has remained cryptic about her own retirement and evolutionary plans.“I can’t speak for Venus or what exactly her plans are,” said Eric Hechtman, who coaches both Williams sisters. “But you know they are both strong women and both doing it their way. Serena, with the Vogue article, did it on her terms and in her fashion, and whenever Venus decides she’s not going to play tennis anymore, she’ll do it her way. People might say in their minds she got lost in the shuffle here, but whatever way she does it is the way she wants to do it. They are different people with different objectives, both staying true to who they are.”The U.S. Open organizers did not hesitate to capitalize on the moment, opening a night session with a doubles match for the first time since Sept. 3, 2012, when the Williams sisters faced Nadia Petrova and Maria Kirilenko in a third-round match.Perhaps it was foreshadowing that the sisters lost that one in straight sets, too, and with Venus’s elimination in the first round of singles, there is only one Williams left in this U.S. Open. Serena will be back on Ashe Stadium for a night session on Friday night to face the unseeded Australian Ajla Tomljanovic, who joked that she was planning on bringing earplugs to block out the roars.No such measures would have been necessary on Thursday. Rarely have so many U.S. Open fans been so quiet after sundown. More

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    No Handshake After Ukrainian loses to Belarusian at U.S. Open

    The bitterness and acrimony from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine spilled onto the tennis courts of the U.S. Open again Thursday as Victoria Azarenka of Belarus beat Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3.Kostyuk, who has been outspoken in her belief that players from Russia and Belarus should be barred from the sport, refused to shake Azarenka’s hand after her defeat, opting only to tap rackets with Azarenka when it was over.In April, Kostyuk and several other players from Ukraine called for ruling organizations of tennis to ask players from Russia and Belarus if they supported the war and to denounce it if they did not. In the absence of declarations against the war, Kostyuk and the other Ukrainian players said the players from Russia and Belarus should be barred from any international event.“There comes a time when silence is betrayal, and that time is now,” the statement from the players said.Speaking with journalists at a news conference after the match, Kostyuk explained that she had no interest in shaking hands with players who had not spoken out publicly against the brutality of the war. She also criticized players from Russia and Belarus for not reaching out to players from Ukraine, several of whom have not been able to go home since Russia invaded their country in February.Serena Williams at the U.S. OpenThe U.S. Open could be the tennis star’s last professional tournament after a long career of breaking boundaries and obliterating expectations.A Magical Run: As her successes on the field prove, Serena Williams did not come to New York to receive a ceremonial send-off, but to put her best on the line against the world’s finest players.In the Player’s Box: Fans at Arthur Ashe Stadium have been catching glimpses of her family and entourage. Here is a look at who has been in attendance to support her.Her Fans: We asked readers to share their memories of watching Williams play and the emotions that she stirred. There was no shortage of submissions.Sisterhood on the Field: Since Williams and her sister Venus burst onto the tennis scene in the 1990s, their legacies have been tied to one another.Kostyuk texted Azarenka before the match to tell her she would not be shaking her hand after the match, but the two did not speak beforehand.It was the second time in two weeks that Kostyuk went after Azarenka, who in years past made multiple appearances with President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus. Last week, Kostyuk pushed officials from the United States Tennis Association to prohibit Azarenka from participating in an exhibition to benefit relief efforts in Ukraine. On Thursday, she defended those actions, saying it would have been akin to having a German attend a benefit for European Jews during World War II.Azarenka had planned to participate in the benefit until Kostyuk and other players from Ukraine protested.Shortly after Kostyuk spoke Thursday, Azarenka held her own news conference and defended her actions. She said she had reached out to players from Ukraine but had sent the messages through intermediaries with the WTA Tour, which she helps run as a member of its Players’ Council.“I’ve had a very clear message from the beginning, that I’m here to try to help, which I have done a lot,” Azarenka said. “Maybe not something that people see. And that’s not what I do it for. I do it for people who are in need, juniors who need clothes, other people who need money or other people who needed transportation or whatever. That’s what is important to me, to help people who are in need.”Azarenka said if Kostyuk wanted to speak with her, she was “open any time to listen, to try to understand, to sympathize.” She added, “I believe that empathy in the moment like this is really important.”Tensions among players from the warring countries have been mounting for months.Iga Swiatek of Poland, the world No. 1, who has held her own fund-raiser for relief efforts in Ukraine and who has condemned the invasion, said the sport’s leaders missed an opportunity to manage those tensions when the war first broke out.“Right now, it’s kind of too late, I think, to fix that,” Swiatek said Thursday. “Right now, it’s easy to say that maybe there was lack of leadership, but at that time I didn’t know what to do either.” More

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    How Do Doubles Teams Partner Up?

    For some players, finding a doubles partner is easy — just ask a friend. (Or in the case of Serena and Venus Williams, a sibling.)That’s been the case for the Aussies, Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis, known as the Special Ks. The duo are close friends who have been playing doubles together since they were boys.Together they won the doubles boys final at Wimbledon in 2013, and since then, they’ve won a number of doubles titles together, including at this year’s Australian Open and the Atlanta Open.Other players, however, have to go out on limb to find a partner. In some cases, that might mean taking publicly to social media or sliding into the DMs.Before Wimbledon this year, Coco Gauff, 18-year-old American, took to Twitter to search for a partner for the mixed doubles draw.Serena Williams at the U.S. OpenThe U.S. Open could be the tennis star’s last professional tournament after a long career of breaking boundaries and obliterating expectations.A Magical Run: As her successes on the field prove, Serena Williams did not come to New York to receive a ceremonial send-off, but to put her best on the line against the world’s finest players.In the Player’s Box: Fans at Arthur Ashe Stadium have been catching glimpses of her family and entourage. Here is a look at who has been in attendance to support her.Her Fans: We asked readers to share their memories of watching Williams play and the emotions that she stirred. There was no shortage of submissions.Sisterhood on the Field: Since Williams and her sister Venus burst onto the tennis scene in the 1990s, their legacies have been tied to one another.“Who wants to play mixed at wimby,” Gauff said in tweet.Jack Sock, the 29-year-old American, responded to Gauff’s post, and said, “We’d be a decent team.”The two advanced to the semifinals before losing in three sets.Others have had even more luck on social media. Before the French Open this year, Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands sent a direct message to Ena Shibahara of Japan to ask if she’d be interested in playing mixed doubles. The two had never met before, but they went on to win the title.Bethanie Mattek-Sands, an American professional tennis player who was formerly No. 1 in doubles, said she has played with a lot of friends throughout her career. “I feel like that makes doubles that much more fun, you’re out there with a buddy and then you just figure out what your strengths are as a team and go from there,” she said.But overall, finding a doubles partner “can be pretty random,” Mattek-Sands said. “You can talk to a friend, send a text and just be like, ‘Hey, do you have a partner for this tournament, that tournament?”How long a team stays together really varies, Mattek-Sands said: Some players prefer to play with the same person all year because they can compete as a team in the year-end championships. Others like to play for clay-court season or the hardcourt season. Sometimes a match up is just a one off.Some players just look at the rankings of other players, but “most of the time it’s friends texting friends or coaches texting other coaches to see if their player already has a partner,” Mattek-Sands said.Before this year, it’s been a while since either of the Williams sisters have played doubles. Venus Williams lasted played at the French Open last year with Gauff. And before this year, Serena Williams last played doubles a tournament in New Zealand in 2020 with Caroline Wozniacki.To play in this year’s women’s doubles draw, the Williams sisters were awarded a wild card from the U.S. Open.The Williams sisters won the U.S. Open doubles tournament together in 1999 and 2009. The sisters have won 14 Grand Slam titles together, most recently at Wimbledon in 2016. They last played doubles at the U.S. Open in 2014, and at any Grand Slam tournament in 2018.“I think you’ll know if Venus and Serena are playing well by how they are serving and then putting the pressure on that second ball,” said Mattek-Sands, who has competed in doubles against the Williams sisters. “We know that they can both hit big serves, but how is their partner at the net handling that? I think if they can put a lot of pressure on the returners, they’re going to be doing really well.” More

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    Serena Williams US Open Tickets demand Keeps Going Up

    The further Serena Williams advances into the U.S. Open, the more tickets cost to see her.For Williams’s doubles match with her sister Venus on Thursday in Arthur Ashe Stadium, the cheapest seats available for resale on Ticketmaster were well over $340 each in the nosebleeds.Those who want a better view of the Williams sisters will need to pay substantially more. Resale tickets for Thursday in the midlevel of Arthur Ashe were selling for about $1,000 and up as of Thursday, and tickets in the lowest level of the stadium were selling for more than $7,500 each.For Williams’s third round singles match against Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia on Friday night, tickets were north of $500 for the cheapest seats. Tickets in the midlevel of Ashe were selling for about $3,000, and more than $9,000 in the lowest level of the stadium.Williams is having an obvious effect on ticket prices, according to Logitix, a ticketing technology company. Before she won her second-round match against Anett Kontaveit on Wednesday, the cheapest tickets for a Friday night match in Arthur Ashe were $160, then jumped to $450 after Williams won, according to Logitix. Tickets in the midlevel of Ashe before she won were selling for $405, then shot up to $1,530. Courtside tickets were going for $805 before the win and $3,500 after the win.While the final is still more than a week away, with several rounds in between, tickets for the women’s final are also up. Those who looked for tickets to the Sept. 10 final before Williams announced she planned to retire could have found some tickets for about $150. Since Williams has advanced to the third round, the cheapest tickets for the women’s final have now doubled, to about $300 on Ticketmaster. More