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      Serena Williams Rises to the Occasion, Like So Many Times Before

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      Williams met a valedictory night at the U.S. Open with a win that was fitting, and with a second-round match on Wednesday, the farewell party at Arthur Ashe Stadium continues.It was an opening night at the U.S. Open that could have been the closing night of Serena Williams’s 27-year professional singles career.But win or lose, Williams was getting the ceremonial treatment in Arthur Ashe Stadium. The guest list and laudatory tone were set; the protocol and the videos narrated by Queen Latifah and Oprah Winfrey were in place.It felt closer to a rock concert than a first-round tennis match as Williams walked into the sold-out stadium where she has experienced triumph and heartache in fairly equal measure only to be greeted this time by perhaps the loudest extended roar of support she has experienced in her nearly 41 years.“Really overwhelming,” Williams said. “I could feel it in my chest, and it was a really good feeling. It’s a feeling I will never forget and that meant a lot to me.”Williams and the CBS journalist Gayle King after the match.Michelle V. Agins/The New York TimesIt was the message and gift that the crowd of nearly 24,000 in Ashe Stadium clearly wanted to deliver with Williams nearing the finish line.A loss to the 80th-ranked Danka Kovinic would have been no surprise. Williams has struggled with her movement and timing since returning to action in June after nearly a one-year hiatus.In her early comeback tournaments, she had looked late to the ball and late to the realization that time is undefeated. In her last match before the U.S. Open, she was beaten, 6-4, 6-0, in the first round of the Western and Southern Open in Mason, Ohio, by a player less than half her age: 19-year-old Emma Raducanu, last year’s big-surprise U.S. Open women’s singles champion.New York, despite the valedictory mood, was in danger of becoming a downer, and Williams was hardly reassuring in the early going against Kovinic as she went down a service break with double faults and unforced errors piling up.But with Kovinic serving and just one point away from a 4-2 first-set lead, Williams struck a backhand return that landed on the outside edge of the baseline for a winner that got her back to deuce.Serena Williams’s Farewell to TennisThe U.S. Open could be the tennis star’s last professional tournament after a long career of breaking boundaries and obliterating expectations.Decades of Greatness: Over 27 years, Serena Williams dominated generation after generation of opponents and changed the way women’s tennis is played, winning 23 Grand Slam singles titles and cementing her reputation as the queen of comebacks.Is She the GOAT?: Proclaiming Williams the greatest women’s tennis player of all time is not a straightforward debate, our columnist writes.An Enduring Influence: From former and current players’ memories of a young Williams to the new fans she drew to tennis, Williams left a lasting impression.Her Fashion: Since she turned professional in 1995, Williams has used her clothes as a statement of self and a weapon of change.It was a slightly mis-hit shot that easily could have produced a different outcome, but the winner rattled Kovinic, who double faulted twice in a row.It was 3-3 in a hurry, and Williams took the hint and the momentum, sweeping the next three games to take the first set and then clicking into a gear she has not experienced in quite some time to take command.Spectators watched Williams on a big screen set up at Hudson Yards in Manhattan.Anna Watts for The New York TimesTroubled by knee pain in Ohio, she looked significantly quicker on Monday. She made errors on the move but at least she was moving. Though this was hardly vintage Williams, there were certainly nods to past glories as she began ripping ferocious full-cut return winners, closing on high balls with cocksure swing volleys and even holding serve at love.Raducanu, who barely made an unforced error and rarely had to hit a second serve in the last tournament Williams played before Monday night, was certainly a higher hurdle to clear than Kovinic, who finished with eight double faults and put only 44 percent of her first serves in play.But this, by the end, was an improved Williams, and it was evident her confidence grew as the match progressed in this grand yet so-familiar space.She was asked if the idea of retirement was now causing her less pain. In Toronto, shortly after her announcement, she broke down in tears at the post-match ceremony after losing to Belinda Bencic in the second round.“I do feel different; I think I was really emotional in Toronto and Cincinnati, and it was very difficult,” Williams said. “It’s extremely difficult still, because I absolutely love being out there. The more tournaments I play, I feel like the more I can belong out there. That’s a tough feeling to have and to leave knowing the more you do it, the more you can shine. But it’s time for me, you know, to evolve to the next thing.”Much has changed in Ashe Stadium since Williams made her U.S. Open debut in 1997, playing doubles with her older sister Venus. The court, once green, is now blue. The stadium, once fully exposed to the elements and swirling winds, now features a retractable roof that has changed the acoustics and the airflow even when the roof remains open.There are screens and more screens: on the walls and in the hands of the fans. And as Williams approached the end of this first-round victory that no one was taking for granted this year, many of the spectators rose to their feet as she prepared to return Kovinic’s serve on match point, holding their phones aloft to capture the moment.It was a rare, perhaps unprecedented scene — a head start on a standing ovation — and Williams delivered closure, finishing off the 6-3, 6-3 victory and then celebrating with a victory jig before the start of the bigger celebration — of her place in tennis and the wider culture. It was a surprise to Williams, who sat courtside in her chair as Gayle King and Billie Jean King took turns offering tributes.“You touched our hearts and minds to be our authentic self,” Billie Jean King said. “To use our voices. To dream big. Thank you for your leadership and commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion and especially for women and women of color. Most of all, thank you for sharing your journey with every single one of us.”Tamara King, a 42-year-old African American woman, was among those in Ashe Stadium. Once a Monica Seles fan, she soon became a Williams fan after Serena and Venus turned pro in the 1990s. After hearing that Serena’s retirement was imminent, she said she spent $3,000 on a ticket to Monday’s match.Multiple times throughout the night, she was moved to tears.“Never thought that I would be able to pay to be able to sit and see somebody that looks like me be loved by so many people at a court like Arthur Ashe Stadium,” Tamara King said. “It’s just full circle, because you know Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe were the pioneers of this. And now we have Serena and Venus, who have passed the torch to like Coco, which is just amazing for Black women. It’s amazing for tennis. Hopefully, it’ll continue.”King was referring to Coco Gauff, the rising 18-year-old American star who reached the French Open final this year and won her first-round match in Ashe Stadium earlier in the day, beating the French qualifier Leolia Jeanjean. But Gauff, like King and so many others, was watching Williams on a Monday when the Open set a night-session record on the grounds with 29,402 paying spectators.For their money, they got a match and what amounted to a farewell party — even if Williams is not quite ready to say farewell just yet.Despite the first-person Vogue essay earlier this month indicating that the end was near, she was still not prepared late Monday night to confirm that this will be her last tournament.“I’ve been pretty vague about it, right?” Williams said in the playful tone that is usually reserved for good nights at the office. “I’m going to stay vague, because you never know.”Williams will face No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit in the second round on Wednesday.Michelle V. Agins/The New York TimesWhat is clear is that this tournament is not over. She has entered the doubles draw with Venus, with whom she has already won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles. And on Wednesday, she will face the No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit in the second round of the singles tournament. That is perhaps less daunting than it appears on the draw sheet.Kontaveit, an Estonian who resides in London and has the English accent to prove it, has a powerful baseline game but has reserved her best performances for lesser occasions. She has been past the fourth round only once in a Grand Slam tournament, reaching the quarterfinals of the 2020 Australian Open, and has not been past the second round in the first three majors this season, in part because of the after effects of contracting Covid-19.She is also well aware that Wednesday night will be a new experience on two levels. She, like most of Williams’s opponents on tour these days, has never faced her, and Kontaveit has never faced any opponent in an atmosphere like this.“I was really rooting for her to win today,” Kontaveit said. “I mean, this is the last chance. Better late than never.”If the U.S. Open organizers threw this big a bash for Williams after a first-round victory, what might they do if she beats the No. 2 seed?Kris Rhim More

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      On the First Day of US Open, All Eyes Are on Serena Williams

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      There are 63 other matches on opening day, but they have been relegated to the background as Williams prepares to play what could be her final singles match.Iga Swiatek is seeded No. 1 for the first time this year at the U.S. Open and is trying to secure her first Grand Slam title somewhere other than the red clay of Roland Garros.But on the eve of the U.S. Open, Swiatek had another priority: finally working up the courage to meet Serena Williams, a formidable champion whom Swiatek said made her feel like “a kid from kindergarten just looking at her.”On Sunday, Swiatek posted a photograph of her with Williams on her social media accounts: “This is the highlight of my day,” Swiatek wrote on Twitter. “Congratulations on your amazing journey and legendary career @serenawilliams. Huge respect for everything you have done for our sport.”It has been that sort of buildup to this year’s final Grand Slam tournament. There are an abundance of established and emerging players and story lines at the U.S.T.A. Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. But they are all relegated to the background for now as Williams, one of the greatest athletes of any generation, prepares to play what could be her final singles match on Monday night in the first round against the unseeded Danka Kovinic.Until this year, no Chinese man had qualified to play in the U.S. Open but two managed it this year — 25-year-old Zhang Zhizhen and 22-year-old Wu Yibing — and they are on Monday’s schedule after practicing together on Court 8 on Sunday with a small crowd of predominantly Mandarin-speaking fans applauding their efforts and besieging them for autographs and photographs when the training session ended.On Monday, Americans Elizabeth Mandlik and Brandon Holt, both children of U.S. Open singles champions, will make their own Grand Slam debuts. Mandlik, the daughter of Hana Mandlikova, will face Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia. Holt, the son of Tracy Austin, will face Taylor Fritz, the No. 10 seed and top-ranked American who is himself the son of former top 10 women’s player Kathy May.Also on Monday, Dominic Thiem, the 2020 U.S. Open men’s champion, will return to the tournament after missing last year’s Open with a serious wrist injury. He has a tough assignment against Pablo Carreño Busta, the smooth-moving Spaniard who has twice been a semifinalist at the U.S. Open and recently won the Masters 1000 tournament in Canada. But all those intriguing tennis stories will take a back seat to Williams vs. Kovinic, and even the other tennis players have been looking for opportunities to meet and catch up with Williams.“I watch her my whole life,” Swiatek, the 21-year-old Polish star, said of the 40-year-old Williams. “Basically she was everywhere, because she always won and was somewhere in the semifinals or the finals. I didn’t always feel like I’m this kind of player who can play similar tennis, because she always seemed so strong, really stronger than any of her opponents physically. But mentally for sure, she’s the one who’s going to show you how to use your position and how to kind of intimidate with being No. 1. I’m trying to do that. I don’t know if it’s going well or not.”Serena Williams’s Farewell to TennisThe U.S. Open could be the tennis star’s last professional tournament after a long career of breaking boundaries and obliterating expectations.Decades of Greatness: Over 27 years, Serena Williams dominated generation after generation of opponents and changed the way women’s tennis is played, winning 23 Grand Slam singles titles and cementing her reputation as the queen of comebacks.Is She the GOAT?: Proclaiming Williams the greatest women’s tennis player of all time is not a straightforward debate, our columnist writes.An Enduring Influence: From former and current players’ memories of a young Williams to the new fans she drew to tennis, Williams left a lasting impression.Her Fashion: Since she turned professional in 1995, Williams has used her clothes as a statement of self and a weapon of change.For Swiatek, Williams’s ability to juggle outside interests and motherhood with her tennis career have been a “great example.”“I think it’s great that we have somebody like that in our sport who cleared the path and showed us that you can do anything,” she said. “The sky’s the limit.”Naomi Osaka, a former No. 1 and two-time U.S. Open champion trying to recover her mojo after an unsuccessful stretch, spent more of her news conference on Friday answering questions about Williams than any other topic.“I think that her legacy is really wide to the point where you can’t even describe it in words,” Osaka said. “She changed the sport so much. She’s introduced people that have never heard of tennis into the sport. I think I’m a product of what she’s done. I wouldn’t be here without Serena, Venus, her whole family. I’m very thankful to her.”Grigor Dimitrov, the 17th seed in the men’s draw, catching up with Serena Williams during a practice session on Sunday.Julian Finney/Getty ImagesOsaka’s family did use the extraordinary success of the Williamses as a “blueprint,” according to Osaka’s father Leonard Francois.Naomi Osaka made her Grand Slam breakthrough by upsetting Serena Williams in the 2018 U.S. Open final in a match where Williams was penalized a game after a series of code violations by chair umpire Carlos Ramos. Osaka ended up in tears at the on-court awards ceremony amid boos from the stands, which were not directed at her but at the way the final had unfolded.She and Williams have long since moved on from that traumatic evening and developed a strong intergenerational connection.When Williams played (and lost) in the first round of the Western and Southern Open earlier this month to Emma Raducanu, Osaka was in the stands, eager not to miss the opportunity after Williams had announced that the end of her playing career was imminent.“I remember seeing an interview she did, I don’t know what it was, like an on-court thing, that if she retires, she’ll never tell anyone,” Osaka said. “I was really scared: Dang, when is the last time she’s going to play? Just to see her announce it and let people appreciate her legacy is really cool.”Monday night will not be the last chance to do so: Win or lose against Kovinic, Serena is entered in the women’s doubles with her older sister Venus Williams.But Monday night should be quite a moment, a sporting and cultural happening that comes on the 25th anniversary of Arthur Ashe Stadium, still the biggest permanent tennis venue in the world with its capacity of 23,771.While Venus, unseeded, reached the women’s singles final the year Ashe Stadium opened in 1997, Serena did not get to play a match in the main stadium. But she did make her Grand Slam and U.S. Open debut, losing in the first round of doubles with her sister to Kathy Rinaldi and Jill Hetherington.A quarter century later, Venus, 42, and Serena are the only women in this year’s draw who also played in the 1997 Open.It is a moment to celebrate, an era to commemorate, and though there is no shortage of matches on Monday worth watching closely, there can be no doubt about which match is generating the biggest buzz. More

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      Serena Williams at the U.S. Open: How to Watch Her First Match

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      The 23-time Grand Slam champion could be playing her final professional tennis match on Monday at 7 p.m. at Arthur Ashe Stadium.Those who want to see Serena Williams play before she retires from tennis have one guaranteed shot at doing so.Williams is set to play Danka Kovinic in the first round of the tournament on Monday, and if Williams loses, it could be the last time she plays tennis professionally.Williams will play in Arthur Ashe Stadium at 7 p.m. on Monday. Fans may see her in person at Arthur Ashe Stadium, at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, or at home on television.On Saturday morning Williams was one of the first players on the practice court for an early hitting session.Here’s what you need to know ahead of Monday’s marquee match:How did we get here?When a hamstring injury forced Williams to retire in the first round of Wimbledon last year, many began to wonder whether the 23-time Grand Slam champion would return to the game she has dominated for the better part of more than two decades.In mid-June, Williams gave her fans a vague glimmer of hope that she would return to the game, when she posted a picture on Instagram of her shoes on grass.“SW at SW19,” Williams said in the caption, referring to the postal code of the All England Club, where Wimbledon is played. “It’s a date. 2022 See you there.”Without playing in any tuneup matches, Williams made it to Wimbledon, only to lose in the first round. Then after winning a first-round match in the National Bank Open in Toronto in early August, Williams appeared on the cover of Vogue magazine, and in an article she shared that she planned to step away from tennis after the U.S. Open.In the first-person essay, Williams said that she was “evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important,” adding that she planned to focus on her venture capital firm and grow her family, meaning a sibling for her daughter, Olympia, 4.Since then, she has lost in the second round in Toronto and in the first around at the Western & Southern Open in Mason, Ohio.Want to see Williams live?You’ll need a ticket for a night session on Monday in Arthur Ashe Stadium. As of Friday afternoon, the cheapest seats available on resale for Monday night in Arthur Ashe were about $253. That’s in the nosebleeds.Those who want a better view of Williams will need to pay substantially more. Resale tickets in the 100s level of Arthur Ashe were selling for at least $850 as of Friday. Tickets in the lowest level of the stadium were selling for nearly $4,000.Do you just want a taste of the action?Consider buying a night session ticket for Louis Armstrong Stadium and watching the Williams match on a big screen set up in front of Arthur Ashe. The Armstrong tickets won’t get you into Arthur Ashe, but you’ll be free to roam around the grounds of the U.S. Open among like-minded tennis fans, who also want to soak up the atmosphere.Armstrong tickets on Friday were selling for about $110. There will be other night matches at Louis Armstrong on Monday, but not Williams against Kovinic.Rather just watch at home?Tune into ESPN on Monday to watch the match from the comfort of your home. (If you’re in Canada, tune into TSN.)If that’s not quite enough, consider making your own Honey Deuce, the official cocktail of the U.S. Open, and you’ll feel like you’re at the tournament. (Find the recipe here.)Who is Williams playing?Williams will take on Kovinic, a 27-year-old from Montenegro, who is ranked No. 80 in the world. The two have never played each other.Kovinic has had a decent year, reaching the third round of the Australian Open and the French Open. At the Australian Open, Kovinic defeated Emma Raducanu, the reigning U.S. Open champion, in three sets.At U.S. Open media day on Friday, Raducanu was asked about her match against Kovinic, and Raducanu said that it was a match she won’t forget.“I don’t know how it ended up so close,” Raducanu said. “She was really, really solid, was staying with you, counterpunching. Then after you drop one after a long rally, then she would attack. She’s happy to run, happy to rally.”What happens if Williams wins in the first round?If Williams wins, those who missed a chance to see her on Monday will get another chance in the second round of the tournament, which starts on Wednesday for women’s singles. Williams would likely play another night match in Arthur Ashe Stadium.In the second round, she would face the winner of Anett Kontaveit and Jaqueline Cristian. Kontaveit, the No. 2 in the world, is favored to win her match and would be a difficult opponent for Williams.How far can Williams go in the U.S. Open?Pam Shriver, an ESPN commentator, said it will largely depend on her health. Complicating that will be the number of adept players in the women’s draw, Shriver said.“It’s hard for me right now to see her making a run into the second week,” Shriver said. “But it’s still fun to dream, and so until a dream is no longer possible, I’m choosing to still have it as a dream. It would be like the greatest sports story ever.”Who else plays on Monday night?When the Williams and Kovinic match is over, there’s still more tennis scheduled. After that match, Arthur Ashe will host the first round men’s singles match between Australians Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis.The match will be special for them because they’ve played doubles matches together over the years. Plus, any time Kyrgios is on court, fans can count on seeing one of his classic between-the-legs shots. More

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      Serena Williams Will Play Danka Kovinic at U.S. Open on Monday

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      Williams, who has said the Open is most likely her final tournament, will play 80th-ranked Danka Kovinic in the first round on Monday.Unseeded and ranked No. 608, the great Serena Williams could have been drawn to face all manner of opposition in the opening round of her farewell U.S. Open.She could have played any of the 32 seeds, including the No. 1 seed, Iga Swiatek, or the No. 7 seed and her longtime rival, Simona Halep, now working with Williams’s former coach Patrick Mouratoglou.Williams could have had a U.S. Open rematch with Naomi Osaka or Bianca Andreescu, both of whom have beaten her in recent U.S. Open finals. She could have matched up, for the first and final time, with Coco Gauff, an 18-year-old American star who chose tennis in part because Williams was such an inspiring and dominant champion.Or, most poignantly, Serena could have faced the deeply symbolic and forever-conflicted prospect of playing her big sister Venus Williams one last time in the tournament in which both came of age — to put their enduring excellence in perspective — in a different century.But tennis draws are roulette wheels, and Thursday’s game of chance in New York delivered Danka Kovinic, a first-round opponent lacking resonance and the intimidation factor but hardly lacking the ability to snuff out Serena Williams’s last chance at a last hurrah.Kovinic, an unseeded 27-year-old Montenegrin who trains in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, is ranked just 80th in the world and has lost her last five singles matches on tour. But Williams, who turns 41 on Sept. 26, is ranked far below Kovinic at this late stage of her career and has only a 1-3 record in singles since returning to the tour in June.She was soundly beaten, 6-4, 6-0, by Emma Raducanu, last year’s surprise U.S. Open champion, in the opening round of the Western and Southern Open last week, with Williams wearing tape to protect her left knee and looking late to the ball and increasingly glum.Williams was beaten, 6-4, 6-0, by Emma Raducanu in the opening round of the Western and Southern Open last week.Jeff Dean/Associated PressIn light of her recent form, advanced tennis age and lack of matches this season, a deep run at her final U.S. Open would be one of Williams’s most remarkable achievements.But first she must find the means to defeat Kovinic. They have never played in singles on tour, but Kovinic has the weapons, including a powerful serve, to trouble Williams in a match that also will be, given the circumstances, an event. It will be played on Monday in Arthur Ashe Stadium, surely at night under the prime-time lights.The occasion could certainly get to Kovinic, much more accustomed to outside courts. But she has handled the big stage well before: upsetting Raducanu in the second round of this year’s Australian Open in Margaret Court Arena. The occasion and scenario could also get to Williams, a champion who runs on emotion and has made it clear she is no fan of goodbyes.But there is a huge gap in achievement here: Williams is clearly the greatest women’s player of this era with 23 Grand Slam singles titles and long runs at No. 1. Kovinic has yet to win a tour singles title.If Williams, a six-time U.S. Open singles champion, were to prevail, she is likely to face the No. 2 seed, Anett Kontaveit, in the second round. Though that sounds like a nasty draw, Kontaveit built her lofty ranking on the strength of increasingly distant success and has struggled since March, in part because of the aftereffects of contracting Covid-19.She is arguably the most vulnerable of the top eight seeds, which means that Williams, if she can pull her big game together and keep her aches and pains to a minimum, has actually landed in a decent place in her last U.S. Open.It is harder to say that about Venus Williams, 42, in what could also be her final U.S. Open. She has not won a singles match on tour in over a year and will be the underdog in her first-round match against Alison Van Uytvanck, a Belgian ranked No. 42. If she gets past that, Venus would most likely face Elena Rybakina, the reigning Wimbledon champion, whose big serve, lean build, easy power and athleticism bear a certain resemblance to Venus.What seems clear is that Venus and Serena, who are in different halves of the draw, will not play each other again, at least not on tour, after facing off 31 times in singles over more than 20 years. (Serena leads, 19-12.)Serena, left, and Venus Williams after their match at the 2018 U.S. Open.Jason Szenes/EPA, via ShutterstockSwiatek, who won the French Open in June, has lost in the quarterfinals or earlier in her last four tournaments but showed excellent form on American hardcourts earlier this season, winning the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., and the Miami Open en route to a 37-match winning streak in singles. Her first-round opponent at the U.S. Open will be Jasmine Paolini, an unseeded Italian ranked 57th.Raducanu, who has yet to reach another tournament final since her shock triumph in New York last September, has shown flashes of better form recently, with back-to-back routs of Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka last week. But she has a daunting first-round matchup in New York in the French veteran Alizé Cornet, an Australian Open quarterfinalist this season and one of the best defenders and competitors on tour. Cornet also upset Swiatek in the third round of Wimbledon this year.But the best matchup of the opening round in the women’s tournament could be Osaka versus Danielle Collins.Osaka, a former No. 1 and two-time U.S. Open singles champ, is unseeded this year but still dangerous on hardcourts as she showed by reaching the Miami Open final earlier this season. Collins, a fiery American seeded 19th, reached the Australian Open singles final in January, losing to Ashleigh Barty, the now-retired Australian star.Unless Swiatek can recover her early-season form, it looks like a wide-open women’s tournament, and the men’s event also could be full of surprises in the absence of Novak Djokovic, the former No. 1 and reigning Wimbledon champion, who withdrew from the U.S. Open on Thursday shortly before the draw because he continues to be barred from entering the United States as he is not vaccinated for Covid.Whatever one’s view of Djokovic’s stance, he has stuck to his principles at considerable cost to himself and his sport, which has often been deprived of one of its biggest stars.Djokovic has refused to be vaccinated though nearly all of tennis’s top 200 players and all of Djokovic’s significant rivals have done so. The choice has caused him to miss four Masters 1000 events this year and two Grand Slam tournaments (the Australian Open and the U.S. Open) at a moment when he and Rafael Nadal are locked in a duel for the men’s record for major singles titles.Though Djokovic did win Wimbledon this year, he received no ranking boost for it because the men’s and women’s tours stripped Wimbledon of ranking points because the tournament had barred Russian and Belarusian players in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.To sum up, it has been a tennis season that beggars belief, full of abrupt twists and turns. Though the Russians and Belarusians will be in New York, Djokovic will not and must now wait and lobby to be allowed to play next year’s Australian Open, which would require the new Australian government to lift his three-year ban on applying for a visa, a ban that resulted from his deportation in January.In Djokovic’s absence in New York, Nadal, who has 22 Grand Slam singles titles to Djokovic’s 21, has a clearer pathway to padding his slim lead. He has a seemingly smooth early-round draw, facing Rinky Hijikata, an inexperienced wild-card entry from Australia, in his opening match.But Nadal has played (and lost) just one match since withdrawing from Wimbledon in July because of an abdominal injury. Daniil Medvedev of Russia, who is the No. 1 men’s seed and defending champion after defeating Djokovic in last year’s final, has hardly been an irresistible force this season, even on his preferred hardcourts.Djokovic lost to Medvedev in last year’s U.S. Open final.Kena Betancur/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThere is elbow room, perhaps plenty of elbow room, for others to muscle their way into the title picture: men such as Carlos Alcaraz, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Taylor Fritz, Jannik Sinner, Nick Kyrgios or the surprise Cincinnati champion, Borna Coric. (This is not an exhaustive list.)But that is a matter for the second week of this intriguing U.S. Open. For now, all eyes are on Serena. More

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      At the U.S. Open, Serena Williams Was a ‘Game Changer’

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      In 1998, when Serena Williams made her singles debut at the U.S. Open, it was typical to see a crowd of many white faces watching many white players.In the years since, she has done more than any other person to transform those tournament grounds in Queens into a more inclusive environment, where increasing numbers of women and girls of color, some of whom have gone on to play and win in the event, join in the fun each year.While emerging as the face of tennis, Williams, along with her older sister Venus, changed the faces of tennis.“It’s a great feeling to see it,” said Martin Blackman, the general manager of player and coach development for the United States Tennis Association. “I attribute that to Serena and Venus. They completely changed the narrative.”Blackman’s father attended the U.S. Open in Forest Hills, Queens, to see Althea Gibson in the late 1950s, and was one of three Black fans in attendance, he told his son. When Blackman went to the U.S. Open for the first time 20 years later as a fan, there were more Black spectators than the amount his father saw, but nothing like now, thanks largely to the Williamses. Blackman went to the tournament later, as a player representative in 1999, the year Serena won her first major singles title at age 17.“I had the privilege of working in the junior space at that time, and I gradually started to see more and more African American girls and African American boys coming to our camps,” he said. “And the common thread was the inspiration and demonstration effect that Serena and Venus provided. That was the inflection point. That was the game changer.”Over a quarter-century, Serena Williams came to dominate the U.S. Open, winning six singles titles and reaching four other singles finals; winning two doubles titles, with Venus; and winning a mixed doubles title. She also flamed out in spectacular fashion on more than one occasion.For each title, there were untold numbers of players, like Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys, Naomi Osaka, Coco Gauff and others, whose passion for the game was ignited by Williams’s fiery and unapologetic charisma.There were groundbreaking victories, shocking losses, emotional outbursts and hours of thrilling, inspiring tennis, all of which is coming to an end. Williams wrote in a cover story for Vogue magazine, published online Tuesday, that she was transitioning away from tennis to focus on other pursuits, including growing her family.“I started playing tennis with the goal of winning the U.S. Open,” she wrote.She attained that goal, and plenty more. In an era of the sport when American men faltered, she more than carried the load for the nation’s tennis aspirations.Williams was 16, beads in her hair, when she played her first U.S. Open singles match, beating Nicole Pratt and making it to the third round. But being Serena Williams, she did come away with a title, winning mixed doubles with Max Mirnyi.Williams won her first U.S. Open women’s singles title in 1999, above, beating Martina Hingis in the final.Chang W. Lee/New York Times“Even at that age you could see her talent and athleticism,” Mirnyi, 45, recalled. “I would notice, every time she went back to strike the ball, the opponents would be back on their heels. They literally backed up.”Mirnyi’s father, Nikolai, was responsible for arranging the pairing two months earlier at Wimbledon. He asked Richard Williams, Serena’s father, and within days the two had won their first tournament. The only things that could stop them, Mirnyi felt, were the warnings and point penalties chair umpires would impose when beads fell out of Williams’s hair and onto the court.“I kept saying, ‘We don’t want to lose any points because of the beads,’” Mirnyi recalled. “And she would just say, ‘Oh, it’s OK.’ And it was.”But a singles title was her mission. Her first major singles championship came at the 1999 U.S. Open when she beat Martina Hingis in the final at Arthur Ashe Stadium to become the first Black woman to win a Grand Slam event since Gibson, who won five, including the 1957 and 1958 U.S. Opens.Upon winning, she put her hands to her heart and could be seen saying, “Oh my God, I won, oh my God.” Later, she spoke to President Bill Clinton and his daughter, Chelsea, by telephone.In 2001, fans saw the first of the awkward Williams sister duels at a major final, won by Venus Williams. The next year, Serena Williams captured rematches at the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.It would be six years before she beat Jelena Jankovic for the 2008 U.S. Open title, which was followed in 2009 by an on-court flare-up that abruptly ended her semifinal match with Kim Clijsters. Williams had been called for a foot fault that set up a match point, then accosted the lineswoman. Williams was assessed a point penalty, which gave the match to a stunned Clijsters, who went on to win the tournament.Williams won three straight titles beginning in 2012; in 2015, she entered New York looking unbeatable. She had won the three previous major events that year, and winning the fourth would have given her the coveted Grand Slam. But the pressure proved too much, and she was upset in a semifinal by an unseeded Italian, Roberta Vinci.Williams’s most recent U.S. Open win, in 2014, came when she beat Caroline Wozniacki.Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesHer 2018 Open final, against Osaka, was marred by a lengthy and intermittent dispute between Williams and the chair umpire, Carlos Ramos, who initially set off the uproar by calling a code violation on Williams because her coach was signaling to her from the seats. The argument ensued over two changeovers and resulted in her losing a game, and her focus, allowing Osaka to take her first major title amid a cascade of boos and jeers.The spectators were squarely on Williams’s side, and still are. On Tuesday, after news broke that Williams is retiring, 13,000 tickets were sold by 3 p.m., the U.S.T.A. said. As it has been for years, fans will flock to the U.S. Open again, because Serena, along with Venus, made Flushing one of the premier spots in the country to see a celebrated, groundbreaking Black hero in person. More

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      What to Watch on Sunday at the U.S. Open

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      Barbora Krejcikova and Garbiñe Muguruza meet in a battle of players ranked in the top 10 in the world. Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime plays Frances Tiafoe.How to watch: From noon to 6 p.m. Eastern time on ESPN, 7 to 11 p.m. on ESPN2, and streaming on the ESPN app. In Canada, on TSN from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., and streaming on TSN.ca and the TSN app.Matches to keep an eye on.Because of the number of matches cycling through courts, the times for individual matchups are estimates and may fluctuate based on when earlier play is completed. All times are Eastern.ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM | NoonElina Svitolina vs. Simona HalepElina Svitolina, the fifth seed, has never been past the semifinals of a Grand Slam event, while Simona Halep, the 12th seed, has won two major titles on the “natural surfaces,” grass and red clay. The two stars have met nine times on tour, and Svitolina holds a slight edge, with five victories. Although both missed out on the U.S. Open last year, they have had plenty of experience in Arthur Ashe Stadium and will be sure to provide a wonderful match to start the day.ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM | 7 p.m.Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Frances TiafoeOn Friday night, both Felix Auger-Aliassime and Frances Tiafoe battled opponents for five sets under the lights of the two main stadiums at Flushing Meadows. Tiafoe upset the fifth seed, Andrey Rublev, in a tight match; Tiafoe won 150 points, while Rublev won 148, and every other stat line provided similar margins. Auger-Aliassime pushed past Roberto Bautista Agut, the 18th seed, riding behind a dominant service performance that included 27 aces. As the two heavy hitters face off, viewers can expect an explosive match under the lights.ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM | 8 p.m.Barbora Krejcikova vs. Garbiñe MuguruzaThe WTA tour has been defined by a lack of predictability. New stars appear, and consistent champions struggle through major events. In contrast, this year’s U.S. Open has been a much more favorite-friendly venue. Today’s match between Barbora Krejcikova and Garbiñe Muguruza will be the first since the 2020 Australian Open played between top 10 players at a major. Krejcikova won the French Open this year, and Muguruza has won two Grand Slam events, making this a particularly well-matched pair; neither will be hindered by the nerves that can accompany a deep run at a major tournament.Garbiñe Muguruza of Spain playing in a first-round match on Monday.Elsa/Getty ImagesLouis Armstrong STADIUM | 1 p.m.Leylah Fernandez vs. Angelique KerberLeylah Fernandez knocked out Naomi Osaka in a three-set battle on Friday night, outlasting the defending champion. Fernandez won her first WTA title on hard courts at the Monterrey Open in March and has backed up her breakthrough year with fearless ball striking.Angelique Kerber, a three-time major champion, reached the semifinals at Wimbledon, her first time past the fourth round of a major since her victory at Wimbledon in 2018. Kerber has faced tough opposition through the first three rounds but has looked thoroughly in control, using her counterpunching style of play to push around more aggressive opponents.Sleeper match of the day.Grandstand | 5 p.m.Carlos Alcaraz Garfia vs. Peter GojowczykPeter Gojowczyk, ranked No. 141, upset Ugo Humbert, the 23rd seed, in the first round after a grueling set of qualifying matches to get into the main draw. Having never been past the second round of a Grand Slam event, even with 17 main draw appearances, Gojowczyk is flying in rarefied air.Carlos Alcaraz Garfia broke into the public consciousness on Friday after a career-defining upset over the third seed, Stefanos Tsitsipas. The 18-year-old Alcaraz played a near-perfect match to reach the fourth round of a major event for the first time, using his flat baseline shots to power past Tsitsipas, a former ATP Tour Finals champion.As this is the only main draw singles match out on the grounds today, expect New York fans to pull for either the veteran underdog or the young star based on whichever will help elongate the match. More

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      Putting the ‘Open’ Back Into the U.S. Open

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      The Grand Slam tournament that signals the end of summer in New York welcomes fans who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 to pack the house when the main draw begins Monday.It has been two years since tennis fans queued for $25 lobster rolls at the United States Open, 24 long months since tipsy spectators could shout from the upper deck of Arthur Ashe Stadium during rowdy night sessions.But starting on Monday, the U.S. Open will pulsate with fans again, proceeding close to normal with people packing the stands and spending at the concession stands as if it were 2019 all over again.But just as New York has sputtered toward a frustrating and uneven reopening due primarily to the highly contagious Delta variant, New York’s signature two-week summer sporting event returns with full spectator capacity, amid a mixture of hope and anxiety.City leaders expressed shock and concern that the tournament in Flushing Meadows was initially prepared to allow roughly 55,000 people per day to enter the grounds with almost no protections against the coronavirus. But players generally seemed delighted that, unlike last year when no fans were allowed to watch in person, throngs of tennis enthusiasts will be back on hand with all their famous New York zest and vigor.“I’m just happy there’s a crowd in general,” said Naomi Osaka, who won last year’s women’s singles title inside a ghostly empty and echoing Arthur Ashe Stadium.But the crowds will now be required to show proof of vaccination after a hasty retreat on policy by the United States Tennis Association late last week. It was the first, but likely not the last, hiccup for New York’s annual curtain call for summer — a highly attended, two-week tennis festival that straddles Labor Day and by the end signals the first cool hints of fall.On Wednesday, five days before fans were expected to arrive en masse, tournament officials announced that no proof of vaccination or recent negative coronavirus test would be required for fans entering the grounds, and there would be almost no mask mandates.The announcement stunned and alarmed city officials, including Mayor Bill de Blasio, who pressured tournament officials to beef up the restrictions. After a series of discussions over the next two days, the U.S. Open announced that all fans would need to provide proof of at least one Covid vaccine shot.Although it would have been better to make the decision weeks ago to give ticket holders fair warning, the announcement still pleased the tournament’s early critics, like Mark Levine, a City Council member from Manhattan who chairs the health committee and condemned the tournament’s initial lax coronavirus protocols as a dangerous health risk.“Now we can get back to enjoying great tennis without worrying that there will be a superspreader event,” he said.But while the fans are finally back, many top players will not be. Serena Williams, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Venus Williams, Stan Wawrinka and Dominic Thiem, last year’s men’s champion, are skipping the tournament because of various injuries. Together, they have won 19 of the last 42 U.S. Open singles titles.Novak Djokovic has won another three. If he raises the trophy in two weeks, he will become the first player since Steffi Graf in 1988 to win the Grand Slam — all four major tournaments in the same calendar year — and the first man since Rod Laver in 1969.Djokovic’s quest will be the primary tennis theme of the tournament, as long as he doesn’t get disqualified for testing positive for the coronavirus, or some other reason. Last year, Djokovic was tossed from the tournament in the fourth round after he hit a ball in frustration off his racket and it struck a line judge.Since that ignominious exit he has won the Australian Open, the French Open and Wimbledon, and although he lost at the recent Olympics, he is the strong favorite to make this U.S. Open memorable for something other than the coronavirus and a somewhat hectic reopening.“I know how big of an opportunity is in front of me here in New York where historically I’ve played really well over the years,” Djokovic said. “It’s probably the most entertaining tennis court that we have and the crowd will be back in the stadium.”Unlike the fans, the players are not required to be vaccinated. But they will be tested upon arrival and every four days after that. If they test positive, they must withdraw. And any unvaccinated player who is in close contact with someone who is found to have contracted the coronavirus will have to isolate for 10 days, thus ending their tournament, too. So, fans who come to see a favorite player might go home disappointed if that player, or their opponent, is forced to pull out.But several players noted that the presence of fans has a clear impact on play, whether intimidating or motivational.“I played a lot of brutal matches here over the years,” said Andy Murray, the 2012 champion. “The crowd always helped. They like people that fight, give their all, show their heart and emotion and energy and stuff on the court.”Those attending should see things as close to normal as they were in 2019, the last time spectators were permitted. The concession stands, restaurants, bars and shops will be open and fans can mill about freely — unlike last year when a smattering of devotees tried to absorb some of the feel of the tournament from outside the gates.Last year Dominic Thiem beat Alexander Zverev in the men’s final in a mostly empty stadium.Jason Szenes/EPA, via ShutterstockBut some experts remain concerned about the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus, including Charles Branas, a physician and the chair of the epidemiology department at Columbia University’s School of Public Health. Dr. Branas said he is worried about people with only one shot of vaccines that require a double dose. He said they are considered under-vaccinated and do not have the full protective benefit of the vaccine.“I understand this is a big event and a lot of money and jobs are at stake and severe restrictions can be costly,” he said. “But if there is an outbreak at the event, or somewhere else that can be traced back to the event, that has a cost too in a lot of different ways. You have to balance it.”Dr. Branas was also concerned about the roofs and the ventilation of Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong stadiums when they are closed. He noted the “three Vs” that experts focus upon regarding the current situation: Vaccinations, the variant and ventilation.“A closed roof, even if there is some opening on the side, is not optimal,” he said.Similarly, Mayor de Blasio had insisted that either a vaccine mandate be imposed for the two stadiums, or the roofs on both would have to remain open, even in rain. The U.S.T.A., which spent more than $150 million on those roofs, was loath to see the costly structures sit idle in wet conditions, gumming up the tournament’s scheduling and frustrating ESPN, the main broadcaster.So it opted for the vaccine solution, and took it even further than the mayor recommended, mandating vaccines for all fans, not just those with tickets to Ashe or Armstrong. The U.S.T.A. exceeded the mayor’s requirements because about 90 percent of ticket buyers this year hold tickets to Ashe, anyway, according to the U.S.T.A., and doing the screening on the outside the grounds was seen as more efficient than doing it inside.Louis Marciani, the founder of the Innovation Institute for Fan Experience, which focuses on the safety and health of fans at sporting events, applauded the tournament’s ultimate protocols, even if they were hastily reconfigured.“We as an organization support their decision because it is based on scientific evidence and local conditions,” he said. “Let’s face it, this might not be such a good idea in a place like Las Vegas that does not have as high a vaccination rate.”Brian Hainline, a physician and a member of the U.S.T.A.’s medical advisory board, said the goal was not to prevent a single infection, but to prevent an outbreak.After that, it’s all about the tennis and the $25 lobster rolls, the end of summer and the whisper of autumn in New York. And maybe a Grand Slam, too. More