OT - Serena Williams upsets 2 seed to extend her US Open Run/ Career
Serena Williams is playing the last tournament of her life. With age and injuries, no one rationally expected a storybook ending. But… Serena went and upset the 2 seed from Estonia Anett Kontaveit in front of a packed house of partisan supporters in the second round. Not bad for a 40 year-old living legend playing against women who tend to peak in this game in their early twenties. Will be interesting to watch things continue to unfold.
August 31st, 2022 at 10:13 PM ^
As good as sports get.
September 1st, 2022 at 10:49 AM ^
Definitely more fun to watch then Women's Ice Hockey!
August 31st, 2022 at 10:24 PM ^
Prime time US Open coverage is great but the new match is in the second game of the first set and there is no way I can stay up to watch it.
September 1st, 2022 at 12:09 AM ^
She's the GOAT, but for some reason I was always a bigger Venus fan than Serena. Maybe because she broke out first.
September 1st, 2022 at 2:43 AM ^
Yes...Venus paved the way.
September 1st, 2022 at 2:42 AM ^
Absolute legend
September 1st, 2022 at 2:50 AM ^
It was an awesome match to watch. Serena's opponent, Kontaveit, actually played pretty well. Some good rallies, and that 12-minute game early in the first set dropped like 10 deuces. I thought Kontaveit showed her mettle in front of a partisan crowd (that was mostly well behaved, but you'd always like the chair ump to not have to "please...the players are ready to play" them so much), not to mention against Serena as she slowly became superwoman in the 3rd set.
Serena started off shaky, making a number of unforced errors and gave away a pair of 40-0 games, but you could actually see the years melt away the longer the match went. That was not a 40-year-old who has hardly played tennis lately, that was a legend who is getting into form at the right time. Her movement was shockingly good compared to recent matches. Her power and skill is always there if she can get across the court.
It goes without saying how inspirational Serena Williams is and how poised. Her shushing the crowd, doing the Mutombo finger wag at them, is a great example of her sportsmanship.
I really hope she keeps going and gets deep into the tournament, if not winning the whole damn thing. It could be one of the more memorable finals in tennis history if she gets there. It's already appointment TV as far as I'm concerned.
September 1st, 2022 at 9:36 AM ^
"Her sportsmanship." Ai-yi-yi. The most ungracious and un-sportsmanlike dominant player perhaps in tennis history, well-known for her famous melt-downs, tantrums, and screaming.
I'm not even sure who to compare her to, emotionally. Jimmy Connors, maybe?
September 1st, 2022 at 2:23 PM ^
John McEnroe? Plenty of tennis players have been fiery, had tantrums. Few have been as spotlighted as Serena Williams.
She has had instances of loud beef with the chair umpire, no doubt. The most recent "thing" coming in 2018 vs Naomi Osaka. But, my comments were in reference to last evening where she attempted to keep the crowd from hindering her opponent, while her opponent geared up to serve.
September 1st, 2022 at 5:05 AM ^
Tommy Paul takes out Seb Korda in 5- he's looking potentially like the best hope for the men this year. Still have a lot of American's left- JJ Wolf making a nice run as well.
September 1st, 2022 at 7:18 AM ^
When Tommy Paul is your country’s best hope that’s a thing
September 1st, 2022 at 9:28 AM ^
Taylor Fritz was a dark horse for the final IMHO. Very disappointing result from the 10 seed.
A little more hope for American mens tennis than I’ve had in a long time.
September 1st, 2022 at 7:07 AM ^
I watched the match last night and it was pretty spectacular. Honestly though, I think it will behoove her to lose her first doubles match with Venus. If she has to start playing daily from here on out for singles and doubles, it's going to hamper her chances.
In both of her matches so far I've felt so bad for Kovinic and Kontaveit. The entire building is against them and cheer for every bad thing that happens to them. That's gotta be so tough. Tomljanovic is up next and should be beatable. My prediction is that Serena goes down to Samsonova in the fourth round. She's on a two tournament win streak and playing extremely well at the moment.
September 1st, 2022 at 8:35 AM ^
Hell of a match to watch. Serena showing shades of yesteryear in the third set was really amazing to see. Already can't wait for Friday night.
All that said, I was really impressed with how Kontaveit maneuvered the match. That first set and tiebreak is about as mentally and physically exhausting as it gets. Losing it in front of a hyper-partisan crowd would send a lot of players into a tailspin. Kontaveit has the stigma of shrinking in these situations, and what did she do? Came back in the second set and broke Serena twice and made light work of it. She's going to win some majors along the way once she irons out some rough edges. Her ground strokes are beautiful.
September 1st, 2022 at 8:51 AM ^
Her longevity has been amazing! Serena played 1969- born Steffi Graf and now plays 1993- born Ajla Tomljanovic.
September 1st, 2022 at 9:10 AM ^
September 1st, 2022 at 10:31 AM ^
And, Indy Pete celebrated his 21st and 42nd birthdays on 8/29
September 1st, 2022 at 10:07 AM ^
The first half of the US Open is a fun time - one can wander around and see some big names up close on the outer courts. If you ever get the chance, worth the time and money - the subway takes you right from midtown NY city right to the site.
September 1st, 2022 at 11:28 AM ^
Bit of a tangential question --- but the state of women's tennis today? I admittedly follow the men's game more than the women's game.
But I found it striking that the number 2 seed in the US Open was someone who:
- was 3-3 in Grand Slam matches, prior to last night, in Calendar Year 2022,
- is 26 years old (e.g., not a newcomer to the scene),
- had only made a Quarterfinal in a Grand Slam once in her entire career (2020 Australian Open). That over the course of 33 Grand Slam appearances total, and
- had never even matched-up against Serena even once prior to last night (elite players would seemingly run into each other at some point over a multi-year career).
Now, no doubt, Anett would destroy me in a match of tennis. But that resume gets someone to a number 2 seed?!?! That resume seems more like someone who is a 25th or 30th seed, to be honest.
But is that the current state of the game - just nobody at all who really stands out at the top, tons of parity?
September 1st, 2022 at 2:07 PM ^
They talked about this on the broadcast. My recollection is that Kontaveit has about 2,000 fewer ranking points than a typical #2 seed at this time of the year. There are a few factors at play: (1) she had long COVID and most of late spring/summer was a washout for her; (2) she has been pretty lethal at smaller tournaments (which also cede ranking points) compared to ho hum at majors; (3) Wimbledon didn't award any points this year due to their decision on Russia, so women tennis players that did well there aren't benefitting in the rankings from that. The commentators also mentioned that there wasn't a lot of difference in points between seeds 2 through 5 or 6.
September 1st, 2022 at 2:44 PM ^
Thanks - I missed that part of the broadcast. I didn't agree with the ATP/WTA decision on Wimbledon, but that is what it is - it would matter in rankings too.
September 2nd, 2022 at 4:34 PM ^
I guess ESPN didn't expect Serena to be playing tonight; they've now moved Sparty/WMU to the Deuce.