A special night Serena Williams and tennis fans will never forget as farewell continues – US Open Diary

An opening night like no other

A rocking Arthur Ashe Stadium was ready to throw a glitzy party for the American icon and Serena turned up for it dressed to the nines; literally sparkling from head to toe with diamonds in her hair, dress and shoes. Not to mention the long shiny train she had attached to her dress for her walk-on.

Her daughter Olympia wore a matching outfit, and had white beads in her hair, just like Serena did the first time she won the US Open in 1999.

“It was either her wear beads or me, so… I wanted to do it, but I just didn’t have the time,” joked Serena later in her press conference.

US Open ticket prices rocketed the second she announced she was stepping away from the sport and the grounds were swarmed by her fans dressed in everything Serena-related and holding signs with messages of support to the retiring queen.

The crowd set a US Open opening night record as 29,402 people flocked to the Billie Jean King Tennis Center on Monday.

As the Ukrainian Chorus Dumka of New York performed a haunting rendition of ‘One moment in time’ in the build-up to the match, one could tell we were in for a special night.

A Serena montage narrated by Queen Latifah was shown on the big screens before the 23-time Grand Slam champion was introduced onto the court as the “greatest of all time”.

Queen Latifah was in the stands wearing a Serena ‘GOAT’ hoodie. Spike Lee did the coin toss, Anna Wintour was in Serena’s box, Bill Clinton, Katie Couric, Vera Wang, Bella Hadid, Hugh Jackman and Rebel Wilson were all in attendance, while Martina Navratilova – in a sparkling outfit herself – was sat next to Mike Tyson, petting her dog and enjoying the atmosphere.

Players like Naomi Osaka, Coco Gauff and Felix Auger-Aliassime snuck into the stadium to watch the match, knowing this was one of the very last times they would be able to see Serena compete.

The contest was basically a series of standing ovations from the 23,000 capacity crowd, all dedicated to Serena. Fans roared on every single point she won, sometimes on every shot she hit within a rally.

Her opponent Danka Kovinic handled the occasion as best she could, but would understandably double fault when fans yelled out their ‘I love yous’ to Serena before the Montenegrin got a chance to serve.

Another video montage played on the big screens, this time narrated by none other than Oprah.

“Thank you for turning Centre Court into Centre Stage,” Oprah said in the video. An apt description of exactly what happened on Monday night.

After Serena spoke to Gayle King and the crowd, the ceremony ended with the entire stadium turning into a sea of blue, with the message, “We love you Serena”, formed in white.

“I think when I walked out, the reception was really overwhelming. It was loud and I could feel it in my chest. It was a really good feeling,” said Serena in her press conference.

“It’s a feeling I’ll never forget.”

She’ll likely relive it all over again in two days’ time against Anett Kontaveit!

Qualifiers pack a punch

They still have a long way to replicate what Emma Raducanu did last year, but several qualifiers sent out an early statement on opening day as they knocked out in-form top seeds en route to the second round.

Playing his first ever tour-level match, American qualifier and world No.303 Brandon Holt defeated No.10 seed Taylor Fritz 6-7(3) 7-6(1) 6-3 6-4 on Grandstand.

Literally seconds later on Louis Armstrong Stadium, Colombian qualifier Daniel Elahi Galan dismissed Greek No.4 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-0 6-1 3-6 7-5.

“We practise, we work hard, we wake up early every day so that one day we can play on courts like these,” said an elated Galan after the win.

Tsitsipas lost the first 11 games of the match before finally getting on the board. He received some treatment on his right arm but later said it just felt heavy and did not reveal any injury concerns.

“It’s one of the few times in my career that I felt lost. Plus, he was just killing me on the court, he was literally killing me. I felt the opposite of present on the court,” he confessed.

“He played like a world-class player and I played like a… close to amateur. It’s not very nice to say that but that’s what happened.”

Tsitsipas was one of five players who started the tournament with a mathematical shot at reaching the world No. 1 ranking in two weeks’ time and he admits the prospect of that played with his mind.

“I was very motivated and pumped before the US Open started because I knew I can use this tournament to get closer to the No. 1 spot,” said Tsitsipas.

“It would be very weird and very unusual if it didn’t cross my mind, because this is something I wanted since I was a kid and I know that this is my chance now to step it up, give it another strong go, be super strong and super concentrated towards my goal.

“And it just didn’t go as planned. Maybe you need to let it go, you don’t need to over-think it, you don’t need to push yourself too hard. But at the same it’s difficult because there’s this open opportunity right in front of you and you don’t want to mess it up, you don’t want to waste it.”

The 20-year-old Snigur, ranked No. 124 in the world, was in tears as she celebrated her win on court, and made a heart shape with her fingers around the yellow and blue ribbon pinned to her shirt, sending love to Ukraine.

Wu makes history

2017 boys’ champion Wu Yibing claimed an impressive 6-3 6-4 6-0 result over No. 31 seed Nikoloz Basilashvili to become the first Chinese man to win a Grand Slam singles match in the Open Era, and the first since Mei Fu Chi in 1959 Wimbledon.

The 22-year-old, who next faces Nuno Borges, is the first Chinese man to win a US Open main draw match since Cheng Guy at the 1935 US Championships.

Comeback of the day

The grass season’s breakout star Tim van Rijthoven saved seven match points in the third set and rallied back from two-sets-to-love down to defeat China’s Zhang Zhizhen on Monday.

“He had some chances and he tried to take them but he failed to take them. There were some big misses from his side so that’s when I felt he was going to be very tight to finish the match, it was very tough for him, so I figured I should just hang in there and keep going,” said the Dutchman after the win.

Stat of the day

– Serena is just the fourth woman in the Open Era to win at least one match at the US Open in her teens, 20s, 30s and 40s, joining Venus Williams, Kimiko Date and Martina Navratilova.

– Serena has improved her perfect record in US Open first rounds to 21-0.

– Van Rijthoven topped the tournament’s aces leaderboard on Monday by striking 26 in his comeback win over Zhang.

Quotes of the day

“I experienced a loss to Ashleigh Barty in Melbourne 6-0 6-0. I was like, It cannot be worse than that, even against Serena.” – Kovinic on how she kept her cool against Serena.

“Tennis is a difficult sport, it’s psychologically very difficult. Even in the best of times, deep inside you know there are going to be moments pretty soon where it’s not going to be all shiny and beautiful and rose petals and you’re not going to be in the Garden of Eden for too long. And it’s part of the reality that we players have to deal with.” – Tsitsipas on the reality of life on tour.

“I’ve been playing really well, had really high hopes. I feel like an idiot for thinking that I could win this thing, win the US Open. I can’t go out and play a match like that. It sucks. I feel awful.” – Fritz sounded inconsolable during his press conference following his first-round exit.

“I’ve been pretty vague about it, right (smiling)? I’m going to stay vague because you never know.” – Serena refuses to say for certain that the US Open will be the very last tournament of her professional career.

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