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      From Start to Finish, Venus and Serena Williams Always Had Each Other

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      Since the Williams sisters first burst into tennis in the 1990s, their legacy has been tied to one another. They will play doubles in perhaps the final tournament of their careers.The Williams sisters. They are the yin to the other’s yang. Starkly different in disposition but tied together by history and sisterly bond.Serena Williams, of course, has been the unquestionable North Star of this U.S. Open. After announcing plans to “evolve” away from tennis once she strikes her last ball here, she is the darling of the tournament and indeed the sports world — lauded and feted and dripping in diamonds and light for her swan song.Venus Williams, at 42 the trailblazer and older of the two, has willingly settled into the backdrop, as has become customary since Serena grabbed the mantle of most famous and accomplished sister.But with Venus’s years piling up and her ranking stuck in the 1500s, this may well be her finale, too.Venus took to the court for her first-round match this week with the statuesque, Zen-like calmness that has been her trademark for years. Through an error-prone loss played in front of a muted, half-full Arthur Ashe Stadium, Venus’s bearing never broke.At virtually every moment of her defeat, 6-1, 7-6 (7-5), to Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium, she was the picture of chin-up, shoulders-back regality.We tend to take the greats for granted, especially when greatness comes in two. It’s easy to forget that among the sisters, Venus burst onto the world stage first. As an unseeded 17-year-old, she marched to the finals here in 1997.“It’s been such an amazingly long career that people lose track of what she was back then and at her peak,” said Lindsay Davenport, who lost to Venus in the championship match of the 2000 U.S. Open (Venus won again in 2001). “She was so powerful, serving at 120 miles per hour, all over you with every shot, running down everything.”Those days are gone. What has never diminished is the unyielding interdependence Venus and Serena share.Lindsay Davenport recalled facing Venus Williams in 2000. “She was so powerful, serving at 120 miles per hour, all over you with every shot, running down everything.”Vincent Laforet/The New York TimesEarly in the week, Serena, 40, described Venus as “my rock” and spoke of how important it was to have Venus be part of this week’s celebration. For the first time since 2018, and most likely the last time ever, the two will play in a Grand Slam doubles tournament.With a mischievousness glimmer, Venus told reporters she had no choice in the matter. It was Serena’s idea. “She’s the boss so I do whatever she tells me to do,” she said.Since the mid-1990s, they have been playing professional tennis on an unrelenting tour that offers little time for rest and plenty of time to feel isolated and alone.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 has 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’s a grind for top competitors like the Williams sisters, who for years made it their business to reach the last stages of almost every event they played. Add race to the mix — the fact that, as Black women, Venus and Serena were always symbols of something much more than just themselves — and the pressure deepens.That they had one another all this time was more than a blessing, it may have helped keep both of their careers going well past the typical due dates.They had one another, and we watched them both.The sisters faced off 16 times in major tournaments, almost always in late rounds. Venus won five of those matches. How many Grand Slams would Serena have won if Venus were not there to fend her off? And what about the other way around?There were Venus’s walloping wins the first three times they played on tour. And the nervous way they played as the rivalry approached full stride.Serena’s balky performances led to awkward post-match hugs. “No, no, you, little sis, take the next one,” Venus seemed to reply. “I just can’t play the way I want against you.”They had a habit of playing so poorly against one another that some in tennis fandom became convinced that their father, Richard, had fixed their matches. When Venus pulled out with an injury just before their semifinal match at Indian Wells in 2001, the conspiracy theory reached a peak.Venus sat in the stands as Serena battled Kim Clijsters in the final of that tournament, the predominantly white crowd angrily booing both of the sisters and, according to Richard Williams, shouting a racial slur. They were 20 and 19 at the time.From 2002 to 2003, Serena began taking over as the sister destined for ultimate greatness. In that period, they faced off in the finals of four consecutive Grand Slams. Serena won them all.Did this cause sibling jealousy? Not for these two.Having just lost to her sister at the 2002 French Open, Venus was so proud and delighted for Serena that she stepped off the podium, retrieved a camera and joined the press photographers taking photos of the newly crowned champion.Having just lost to Serena Williams at the 2002 French Open, Venus joined the group of photographers to get a shot of the newly crowned champion.Photo by Phil Cole/Getty ImagesTheir on-court rivalry became one-sided over the last dozen years, decidedly swinging in Serena’s favor, but on and on they went, always together, always close, Venus ever the careful big sister with the broad shoulders to lean on.Would either have reached the highest of heights if the other’s example had not provided a constant push to improve? Remember, Venus won seven Grand Slam singles titles and a stunning 14 playing doubles alongside Serena.Then consider all that the sisters have gone through together. The murder of their half sister Yetunde Price in 2003. Venus’s 2011 diagnosis with Sjogren’s syndrome, a fatigue-causing autoimmune disorder. Serena’s pulmonary embolism that year and, later, near-fatal post-pregnancy complications.Would they still be playing if they were solo acts and not siblings?One of the most beautiful things about their careers is the way we’ve witnessed both of them mature and learn from both success and embarrassing failure.Venus spoke to this after her first-round loss when asked about her role in helping Serena conclude that the time was right to leave tennis.“We’re a huge influence on each other,” she said, “and I’m a huge influence on her.”As she continued, Venus noted how she had tried to step away and let her sister’s retirement emerge naturally with Serena, her husband, Alexis Ohanian, and their young daughter, Olympia, taking the lead.“This decision needs to be all hers and her family’s,” Venus said. “The newest part of the family.”Since the 1990s, when they first emerged on the scene, the sisters have been synonymous — tied together in the public mind and their daily reality, a firm knot that never loosened.Time alters everything, though. New family members are central to the equation.Long after this tournament is over, Serena’s story will continue to be there for all to see. Her journey as a venture capitalist or a media mogul is one we will know about. If she has another child, we’ll know that, too: They’ll probably land on the cover of Vogue.Serena will remain in the spotlight. And whenever she needs her sisterly rock, Venus will be there, self-contained and confident, all majestic presence and blistering serve, loyal as can be. More

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      ‘I’m Just Serena,’ Swinging Freely for Another Grand Slam Run

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      Of course Serena Williams is confident. She deserves to be. And her opponents know that her improving game and overwhelming crowd support make beating her in this U.S. Open all the more difficult.Serena Williams is almost 41. She did not play competitive tennis for nearly a year, and it showed — truly it showed — at Wimbledon, in Toronto and in Mason, Ohio, at the three tournaments where she made painfully brief appearances earlier this summer before arriving in New York for her farewell U.S. Open.She looked slow to react and slow on the run. She looked rusty, mistiming returns off second serves that she would once have punished.But that is all irrelevant now. Williams is relaunched, as she made clear by defeating Anett Kontaveit, the No. 2 player in the world, on Wednesday night.Williams is into the third round of what is very likely her final tournament: convincingly replaying her greatest hits — big-point aces, swing-volley winners, full-cut groundstrokes on the move — and quickly giving first-time opponents like Danka Kovinic and Kontaveit a true taste of what it is like to face the real Serena.With her 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-2 victory over Kontaveit complete, Williams was asked on court by ESPN analyst Mary Joe Fernandez, “Are you surprising yourself with your level at the moment?”Williams looked at her for a little while and chuckled.It was the most telling answer of the evening, and no actual words were required even if Williams did tack on a few when the chuckling was done: “I’m just Serena you know,” she said.“She’s not coming here to be surprised by winning, otherwise she wouldn’t be here,” said her coach Eric Hechtman.This is not bravado. This is hard-earned confidence. The kind that comes with being raised by parents who made it clear that greatness lay ahead if the right choices and sacrifices were made. The kind that comes from measuring yourself against an uber-talented big sister named Venus from the moment you could pick up a racket on a court full of cracks in Compton, Calif. The kind that comes from winning 23 Grand Slam singles titles across nearly two decades against rivals from multiple tennis generations and despite all manner of setbacks, both professional and personal.Williams has good reason to believe that she can rise above, even in the twilight, because she has done it so often.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 has 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.“I would never, ever count Serena Williams out, and if you do, that would be your biggest mistake,” said Kathy Rinaldi, the captain of the United States King Cup team, who was watching on Wednesday.If you do count her out, as Williams has explained before, you are only going to help her.“Because she’s going to use that to prove you wrong,” Rinaldi said. “But she’s really enjoying this one. You can clearly see. It’s got to be really tough for her opponents: to face her and face the crowd.”It has been quite a team effort so far: Williams rolling back the years and five tiers of stands packed to the roof in sold-out Arthur Ashe Stadium with fans wholly committed, perhaps for the first time, to showing Williams nothing but love in a venue where she has generated ambivalence in the past with her outbursts and, at other times, with her dominance as she racked up six U.S. Open singles titles and made long runs at No. 1.But with Williams preparing, in her words, to “evolve away from tennis,” the U.S. Open crowd seems to have considered her body of work, enduring excellence and manifest love of the game and the battle and decided to go all in.“There’s no rush here,” Williams said with a grin, alluding to her impending evolution. “I’m loving this crowd. Oh, my goodness, it’s really fantastic. There’s still a little left in me. We’ll see.”Watching her lose 6-4, 6-0 last month to Emma Raducanu in the first round of the Western and Southern Open with tape on her left leg, it did seem reasonable to believe she might not be able to pull her game together in time.“She was a little banged up in Cincy,” Hechtman said. “She’s much better now and of course the crowd helps a lot, absolutely. At the end of the day, you play that many years and that many tournaments and win that many titles, you need the big stage to get you up for it.”There have been more standing ovations than at a national political convention, myriad shouts of support and, less sportingly but probably unavoidably, plenty of cheers for the opposition’s errors, including their missed serves.The latest sellout crowd on Wednesday night even booed a machine: disagreeing with the electronic line-calling system when one of Kontaveit’s winners was shown to have landed on the extreme outside edge of the sideline.In the second set, Kontaveit won one of the points of the tournament — a spectacular scrambling effort punctuated with a backhand winner — and was greeted with a golf clap.It will not get easier for her rivals. Ajla Tomljanovic, the tall and unseeded Australian who will face Williams in the third round on Friday night, was playing on Court 7 on Wednesday as Williams and Kontaveit dueled in the main stadium.“I was hearing the crowd and it like scared me, even though I was playing on a different court,” Tomljanovic said. “So I’m going to have to get my earplugs.”Tomljanovic said before even seeing the draw she had a vision that she would face Williams in New York and was only hoping that it was not going to be in the first round.So it has turned out, and Tomljanovic, like nearly all of Williams’s opponents in this latest comeback, has never played her before. Like Kontaveit, she wants the experience to make her career feel complete but is not sure how she will handle the moment (Kontaveit ended up in tears at her news conference).“I do this trick where I feel like the crowd is cheering for me as well,” she said. “I heard Novak Djokovic say that once about doing that in his matches. It’s a good one. It’s all about tricking your mind really, because you can’t control what the crowd does.”The British chair umpire, Alison Hughes, tried her best on Wednesday night and ended up saying “please” a great deal more than she succeeded in truly quieting the din.It is a moment that spurs thoughts of U.S. Opens past, particularly of Jimmy Connors’ rip-roaring run to the semifinals in 1991 as he was celebrating upset victories and his 39th birthday.“I just feel like I have had a big red X on my back since I won the U.S. Open in ’99,” Williams said. “It’s been there my entire career, because I won my first Grand Slam early in my career. But here it’s different. I feel like I’ve already won, figuratively, mentally.”A record-tying 24th Grand Slam singles title still seems an unreasonable notion to many of us outsiders. She is 40, after all, and also playing doubles with Venus starting Thursday night, which could put extra strain on her injury-prone frame.Her ex-coach Patrick Mouratoglou counseled against doubles during majors and was proved correct in 2018 when in her first major after coming back from childbirth she played both events in the French Open and had to exit the singles draw with an injury.She and Venus have not played doubles at a major again until now, but it is understandable that they want this full-circle moment, and Hechtman said the plan is simply to eliminate a full practice session on the days Serena plays doubles.But her singles draw certainly gets one thinking about the possibility of a deeper run. There are no Grand Slam singles champions left in Serena’s quarter of the draw and only one left in her half: the unseeded Canadian Bianca Andreescu, who beat Williams in the 2019 U.S. Open final.But going all the way surely does not seem preposterous to Team Serena, and when Hechtman was asked very late on Wednesday night about the Connors precedent, he mulled it over and said he was leaning toward a different U.S. Open swan song: Pete Sampras, who won the 2002 men’s title in what turned out to be his final tournament.Dream on New York, and as the Williams family would surely endorse, dream big. More

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      It Was Anett Kontaveit Against Serena Williams, and the Crowd

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      Anett Kontaveit walked out of the players’ tunnel first, with barely a notice from the audience in Arthur Ashe Stadium, which was half full at the time. She made a small waving gesture, to no one in particular, and then went to her chair to prepare for her role as the villain in the biggest tennis spectacle of her life: the Serena Williams U.S. Open.As Williams made her own appearance underneath thunderous applause just moments later, Kontaveit never looked up or glanced over. She just continued to put on her wrist bands, drink water and select her first racket.She got up, walked onto the court first, knowing that for the vast majority of people in the building, she was there only to be the foil for the queen of tennis, there to lose.“It was her moment,” Kontaveit said. “I was trying to do my own thing. Of course, this is totally about her and I was very aware of that.”In the face of a tidal wave of support for Williams, Kontaveit played her role as the antihero as if fashioned from a script, playing well enough to raise the drama, but not well enough to win. Williams took the match, 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-2, to advance to the third round, eliminating the worthy Estonian challenger and No. 2 seed from the U.S. Open.But Kontaveit did not go out without conjuring some of the best tennis from Williams in years. She made some brilliant shots and penetrating serves, but Williams was better on the biggest points, to the delight of 29,959 spectators, a record crowd for a U.S. Open night session. In team sports, athletes regularly encounter hostile environments of 30,000 fans or more. But standing alone in front of all that passion, energy and desire is something different, and Kontaveit informally awarded the audience an assist in the outcome.“It was really hard,” Kontaveit said of the crowd, adding, “I knew it was coming. I guess you can’t learn from anyone else’s mistakes. Feeling it, it was something I never experienced before.”The fans not only cheered when Williams won a point; they yelled encouragement to their heroine throughout the match, shouting, “We love you, Serena,” and “Come on, Serena,” including at critical moments on Kontaveit’s service toss, which is against audience decorum. Several times the chair umpire had to take the fans to task and ask for quiet as Kontaveit waited.Serena Williams had 11 aces to Kontaveit’s five.Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times“They were not rooting against me,” Kontaveit said. “They just wanted Serena to win so bad. I don’t think it’s a personal attack against me or anything. It’s fair. She deserves this.” When the match was over and the players had shaken hands at the net, Kontaveit quickly gathered up her rackets and within moments was back in the locker room, sorting out her feelings after playing one of her best matches of the summer, only to lose to a crowd favorite.Kontaveit knew what was coming well beforehand. She understood she would be facing a substantial onslaught of support in favor of her opponent, and claimed it would relieve her of all expectations and pressure.The precedent had been set on Monday during Williams’s declarative first-round straight-sets win over Danka Kovinic of Montenegro. The crowd for that match was so loud, and in such a celebratory mood, that Kovinic said she could not hear the ball coming off the strings of the rackets, an important signifier of how the ball might move after it lands. Kovinic, ranked No. 80, spoke of actually being swept up in the moment herself, dazzled by the celebrities in attendance that night. For Kontaveit, it was more about the competition, and she was not as carefree afterward.Although she has earned the No. 2 ranking, she has had a difficult summer, losing three of her last four matches on hardcourts entering the U.S. Open. She said she contracted Covid-19 in April and had difficulty regaining her strength. Her one singles title this year came in St. Petersburg, Russia, in February, but she also made it to the finals in Doha, Qatar, later that month.Kontaveit reached the fourth round of the U.S. Open in her first try in 2015, but since then has not been immune to getting knocked out in the first or second round of a major. It has now happened 16 times in the 27 majors she has entered since that run. Her best result at a major is reaching the quarterfinal stage at the 2020 Australian Open, where she lost to Simona Halep.She does have some experience of going deep into the tournament at the U.S. Open. As a junior in 2012 she reached the final, losing to Samantha Crawford.This year, players have commented that the courts at the U.S.T.A. Billie Jean King National Tennis Center are faster than normal, a factor that would tend to enhance the playing style of both Williams and Kontaveit, since each relies on power. Kontaveit indicated she was all for it.Michelle V. Agins/The New York TimesAfter an early exit from the Western and Southern Open outside Cincinnati, she arrived early in New York and practiced on the same courts. The difference was that then, there was virtually no one in the stadium watching. On Wednesday, the entire tennis world was tuned in.As Kontaveit said on Monday, “I’m not sure if I’ll ever experience something like this again.”The next player to experience it will be Ajla Tomljanovic, from Australia, who beat Evgeniya Rodina in three sets on Court 7 at roughly the same time that Williams and Kontaveit were playing. Even from over there, Tomljanovic could hear the noise pulsating from Ashe, the same din that she will be facing in person on Friday night.“I’m like, Court 7 isn’t that close,” Tomljanovic said. “I kept thinking, ‘Oh, my God, that’s annoying me and I’m not even playing against her.’” More

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      Who Will Serena Williams Play in the Third Round?

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      The scene was quieter on the much smaller Court 7, with only a few dozen people sitting on the metal bleachers on Wednesday night to watch Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia defeat Evgeniya Rodina of Russia in three sets.Tomljanovic, 29, will now face Serena Williams in the third round. The two players have never faced each other.Tomljanovic, No. 46 in the world, arrived at the U.S. Open after an impressive performance at Wimbledon in which she advanced to the quarterfinals before losing to the eventual champion, Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan.Rodina handily took the first set of the night, 6-1, but then Tomljanovic quickly took the first three games of the second set. Down 3-0, Rodina called for a medical trainer to the court. The trainer appeared to be treating her leg before they left the court.While Rodina was being treated, Tomljanovic put on a sweatshirt and practiced her serves to stay warm. Rodina returned to the court after several minutes with what appeared to be tape over her right thigh.Rodina won the next two games to make it 3-2, and then called for a trainer to the court again. Down 5-2, Rodina again called for a trainer, who appeared to redo the tape on her leg.Tomljanovic won the next set, 6-2. After the second set, Rodina took another medical timeout and left the court. Tomljanovic appeared to take issue with Rodina’s second break and had a few words with the chair umpire about it.Serving at 5-3, Rodina failed to close out the match, as Tomljanovic pushed it to 5-4, winning the break with a forehand.At 5-5, the two players dueled out an 11-point game that Rodina lost on a forehand unforced error. Up 6-5, Tomljanovic closed out the match on her serve.The third round starts on Friday. More

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      Celebrities and Athletes Who Showed Up to See Serena Williams Tonight

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      Two nights after a number of politicians, A-list actors and professional athletes came to see Serena Williams play in the first round of the U.S. Open, the stars aligned again.Like Monday night, the guests in Williams’s player’s box included Alexis Ohanian, her husband; Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., her daughter, who turns 5 on Thursday; Oracene Price, her mother; and Anna Wintour. Tiger Woods was also joined, and he was eventually greeted by Venus Williams during the first set.After coming to Monday night’s match, Spike Lee returned for the second round match, sitting courtside. Tennis star Billie Jean King also came back.Dionne Warwick before the matchMichelle V. Agins/The New York TimesGov. Kathy Hochul of New York joined the list of politicians to come watch Williams, after former President Bill Clinton and Mayor Eric Adams of New York were in attendance on Monday.Others in attendance or expected to attend include: Dionne Warwick, Jason Collins, Amy Schneider, Zendaya, Anthony Anderson, Bella and Gigi Hadid, La La Anthony, Chelsea Handler, and Steve Nash. More

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      For Venus and Serena Williams at the U.S. Open, Day and Night Experiences

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      Unlike her sister, Venus was not prepared to deal with questions about her tennis future after a loss in the first round of the singles tournament. “I’m just focused on the doubles,” she said.Follow live as Serena Williams plays Anett Kontaveit at the U.S. Open.If Monday night at the U.S. Open with Serena Williams was electric, Tuesday afternoon with her sister Venus was natural lighting: sunlit yet subdued.“That’s a good analogy,” said Kim Benjamin, a longtime fan of the Williams sisters from Baton Rouge, La., who was in Arthur Ashe Stadium for both sessions.Serena Williams’s victory, 6-3, 6-3, over Danka Kovinic of Montenegro in the first round Monday night would have been a tough act to follow for anyone, not just a sibling.This is Serena’s self-declared last U.S. Open and likely her final tournament, and she extended her stay in the singles draw by shaking off the rust and clicking into some familiar gears against Kovinic with the sellout crowd roaring on its feet as she arrived, as she prevailed and as she departed after an on-court tribute that featured Billie Jean King and a video tribute narrated by Oprah Winfrey.“You could just feel the energy, and you just knew that Serena was going to come out and want to give it her all, because the crowd was amazing, from the minute she stepped out,” said Benjamin, who purchased a ticket at the last minute. “It was goose bumps.”But Tuesday afternoon had a very different vibe. The biggest stadium in tennis was half empty and the reception comparatively muted, even if there were plenty of shouts of “We love you, Venus” and “Let’s go, V.”It is partly a matter of perception. The sisters will be forever linked in the public’s eye as players and doubles partners: sharing the same moonshot journey from cracked public courts in Compton, Calif., to Grand Slam titles and No. 1 in the world.But though Venus, 42, is long past the typical tennis retirement date and has not won a singles match since she returned to the tour this season, she appears to be on a different career timeline than her sister, or at least has a radically different way of making an exit.Tuesday’s loss, 6-1, 7-6 (5) to Alison Van Uytvanck, an unseeded Belgian veteran, could well turn out to be the last U.S. Open singles match of Venus’s career but there has been no clarity on her plans, which only widened the disparity between the sisters’ night-and-day experiences this week.They will soon be reunited on court, playing doubles in a first-round match that almost certainly will be scheduled for Thursday night in Arthur Ashe Stadium. But Venus was not prepared on Tuesday to dissolve the mist surrounding her own tennis future at one of her increasingly rare news conferences.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 has 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.Question: “We know about Serena and her plans post-Open. After you have done the doubles, do you plan to evolve away from tennis and do your own thing or is tennis still in the forefront of your mind?”Venus’s response: “Right now I’m just focused on the doubles.”“In the end, it’s just rust,” Venus Williams said. “There is nothing you can do about that except for, you know, not be rusty at some point.” Karsten Moran for The New York TimesRetirement is a rightfully sensitive subject for any star athlete, but Venus has had to deal with the speculation and thinly veiled questions much longer than most. With her results slumping, she had to begin fending off retirement queries beginning in her late 20s, quashing them for a time when she experienced her renaissance season in 2017: reaching the finals of the Australian Open and Wimbledon, making the semifinals of the U.S. Open and soaring inspirationally back into the top five of the rankings at age 37.She has had, by nearly any measure, a phenomenal career: reaching No. 1 in both singles and doubles, winning seven Grand Slam singles titles (five at Wimbledon and two at the U.S. Open), four Olympic gold medals and winning 14 Grand Slam doubles titles with her sister (they are 14-0 in finals).But that stirring 2017 revival looks very much like her last hurrah. She has not reached another final at any level since then and has lost nine times in the first round of Grand Slam tournaments in the last five seasons, never advancing past the third round in any major during that span.“When it’s my last, I’ll let you know,” she said when retirement talk resurfaced after she lost early at Wimbledon again in 2021.At this stage, having missed nearly a year of action because of injury before returning in July, she has a world ranking of 1,504.“It was definitely the longest time I have been away from tennis and been without a racket in my hand,” she said. “So 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.”Because of her ranking, she can only make it into tour-level events through wild cards, like the one awarded to her at this U.S. Open. At some stage, if Venus improbably extends her career well beyond this tournament and season, the largess will and should end. Young players on the rise deserve those opportunities, too, but Venus, even with a quadruple-digit ranking, remains an undeniable drawing card and a touchstone whose many fans, particularly those with siblings, can connect with her story.“She is in her sister’s shadow in my opinion,” Benjamin said. “I think she doesn’t have obviously the family dynamics that Serena does now with a husband and a child. So, I think that she’s here for the long haul, just because she loves the game so much. I think she’s playing because win, lose, or draw, she’s just happy to be playing the game she loves.”That is a devoted fan’s view but not the message Venus sent after her latest defeat. She was asked what was driving her out there on the court at this point of her career.“Three letters,” she answered without hesitation. “W-I-N. That’s it. Very simple.”If so, this must be a downbeat time, but then perhaps it’s wise to not assume too much.She has had plenty of opportunities to gracefully step away and bask in the accolades but has continued to head to the practice court with Eric Hechtman, the coach she now shares with Serena, and has continued to step back into the arena, even if her first step is not nearly as quick.She is hardly embarrassing herself and pushed Van Uytvanck, who is ranked 43rd, into a tiebreaker by lifting her level in the second set with the less-than-capacity crowd providing plenty of positive feedback. But in the end, she could not manufacture quite enough form or consistency.“In the end, it’s just rust,” Venus said. “There is nothing you can do about that except for, you know, not be rusty at some point.”She is now 0-4 in singles in 2022 but is not done just yet with Arthur Ashe Stadium. Bring on the electricity on Thursday.Benjamin, on her way back to Baton Rouge, won’t be able to make that session, but she had some parting words as she headed for the front gate in the natural light.“Be gentle with Venus,” she said. “Please.” More

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      Naomi Osaka, Serena Williams and One Last Shared U.S. Open

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      Osaka lost in the first round Tuesday to Danielle Collins, but would remember the final Grand Slam of the year for the front-row seat she had to her idol’s farewell party. A little more than 24 hours had passed since Serena Williams captivated Arthur Ashe Stadium with her opening-round triumph and bedazzled tennis dress, wrap and hair, and now it was Naomi Osaka’s turn.A year ago, with Williams sidelined with a hamstring injury, Osaka had brought so much heat to the U.S. Open, even before her third-round loss led her to announce that she needed to step away from tennis because it brought her so little joy and so much sadness, even if the sport had allowed her to eclipse Williams as the highest-paid female athlete.Now, for what she says is the last time, Williams is back, and once more, these two megastars that transcend their sport are connected, just as they have been since a fireworks-filled final at Ashe four years ago evolved into both a torch-passing and a moment that has linked them through their careers.Osaka, who lost to the 19th-seeded Danielle Collins, 7-6 (5), 6-3, in a match that bled into early Wednesday morning, is struggling to get out of a prolonged slump as she battles nagging injuries and could not reclaim her magic the way Williams did Monday night. “This is what makes you great, being able to win matches like this even if it’s in the first round,” Osaka said after coming up short. The loss meant a second consecutive premature exit from a tournament that once looked like it would be her grandest stage for years, and it happened despite all those connections she embraced over the past week to the role model she still reveres, who will be back in the spotlight Wednesday night.“I’m a product of what she’s done,” Osaka said Saturday in her pretournament news conference. “I wouldn’t be here without Serena, Venus, her whole family.”Like everything else at this tournament, Osaka’s match seemed peripheral to Serena Williams’s narrative, even if Osaka’s loss had its own significance. At the moment, Osaka is more famous than she is successful at the game that gave her stardom, which could become a problem if those two phenomena do not align soon, and now she will have to do it without her tennis guidepost on tour with her. Since Williams delivered her intentionally vague announcement that she would stop playing competitive tennis at some point after this U.S. Open, few players — perhaps even, few people — have taken the news as hard or tried to collect these last morsels of Williams’s professional tennis life as much as Osaka has.Sensing that end might not be far-off, Osaka cried as she watched Williams’s first match in Toronto earlier this month at the National Bank Open, and she cheered Williams on during her first-round match at the Western and Southern Open in Ohio the following week.It was similar to how she felt after she beat Williams in the semifinals of the Australian Open last year, a loss that caused Williams to break down during her news conference and end it after just a few questions. At the time, Osaka sensed that was the last time Williams was going to play in Australia.Assuming Williams keeps her word, Osaka’s intuition will have aged well once more. The morning after the first-round Toronto match, Williams’s announcement in Vogue that the end was imminent hit Osaka hard.“I’m like, ‘Oh, my God,’ this is what devastation must feel like,” Osaka said of what she felt as she read the news. “It really is an honor just to keep watching her play.”Osaka was watching once more Monday night. She donned a baseball cap and a pair of round glasses and sat roughly 20 rows up from the court, even to the baseline, in the front row of a corporate box but in the open air, with fans passing in the aisle within an arm’s length of her.Coco Gauff, another young Black player who has credited Williams’s career with providing inspiration and a road map for her own path in tennis, was in the stands as well. Gauff, who had won her first-round match Monday afternoon, had planned to watch Williams’s match on television, but changed her mind, deciding she did not want to miss the moment dedicated to the woman who had given her belief.“It made me feel that I could do it,” she said Monday of learning about how Williams and her sister Venus had grown up poor in Compton, Calif., and broken into what had been an overwhelmingly white sport. “I hope that somebody can look at me and say that I feel like I can do it because she did it.”Osaka, whose mother is Japanese and father is Haitian, is a Japanese national, but, like Williams, she grew up largely as a Black woman in America, but their links go far beyond that.Like Williams, Osaka was largely coached by her father, who has spoken of copying the playbook Richard Williams essentially wrote for creating female champions. Osaka also has an older sister who played professional tennis; Mari Osaka, 26, retired last year.For much of their childhoods, Mari was the better player, though Naomi appeared to have a higher ceiling because of her speed, just as Serena Williams did. The first mountain each had to climb was getting good enough to play with and then beat their older sisters. Like Williams, Naomi Osaka has not been shy about speaking out on social justice issues, especially in 2020, following a series of police killings and shootings of Black people. Both have been unafraid to take on the tennis establishment.They played each other five times. Osaka won three of the matches, most memorably the 2018 U.S. Open final, when an overmatched Williams was penalized for receiving coaching and ended up in an ugly dispute with the chair umpire, Carlos Ramos. Osaka ended up in tears during the trophy ceremony as the crowd howled at the outcome.That was the first of Osaka’s four Grand Slam singles titles. It was the second of the four finals Williams lost while on the precipice of tying Margaret Court’s record of 24 Grand Slam singles championships. Williams has not won any Grand Slam singles titles since then. Osaka has won three more, including the 2020 U.S. Open, and was on the cusp of taking the torch from Williams and full control of the sport until her struggles with mental health prevented her from playing all but a few matches during the last six months of 2021. This April, she made the final of the Miami Open, her best result since her comeback began in January, but battled an Achilles’ tendon injury that derailed her preparation for the French Open and forced her to pull out of Wimbledon. After a few hard-fought losses this summer, Osaka badly wanted to play into the later rounds of the U.S. Open, and she came out on fire, lacing serves and forehands and digging balls out of the corners as she sprinted to an early 3-0 lead, looking like the Osaka of two years ago. But Collins quickly matched every ounce of Osaka’s power and proved just a little bit sharper, and maybe a bit luckier in the crucial first-set tiebreaker. She floated a desperate lob that caught the back of the baseline and knuckled a mis-hit service return that Osaka could not handle to clinch the set. In the second set, Osaka took another early lead only to succumb to another rush from Collins, as her forehand grew a little too loose on a night with so little margin for error. Collins gambled with big swings that paid off more often than not, and more often than Osaka’s gambles did. With Collins serving for the match, Osaka had two shots to get back on serve but couldn’t find the winners she needed and sent a backhand long to give Collins the match. “I just have to chill a little bit,” Osaka said while the loss was still raw. “There’s a lot of random chaos in my head right now.”She paused a slow walk off the court and an early departure from the tournament to sign some courtside autographs. Then it was over, and the tournament spotlight was back on Williams once more. More