We thought the farewell would be finished. That the most epic singles career in tennis history would have ended by now in the U.S. Open. Instead she keeps winning, making us greedy to not let go. Making us dream. Might it actually be possible now for a surreal run to one last major championship on the eve of her 41st birthday?
Sports, the first and ultimate unscripted reality TV, holds that magic and power.
So does Serena Williams.
The Queen G.O.A.T. who calls the Miami Open her home tournament moves at once toward retirement and what would be a thoroughly unexpected last major win. But even if the latter that does happen, and the odds are still tall, a quarter century as the face of her sport and this week at Arthur Ashe Stadium have gold-gilded a legacy for all time.
Monday Williams played a woman ranked No. 80 whose name we had not known and still was expected to lose. So much so that the U.S. Open had a postmatch tribute ready and went through with it, including a tribute from Billie Jean King and a career retrospective video narrated by Oprah Winfrey.
But she won, before a record night-session crowd at the National Tennis Center there for history, for goodbye. The average of 2.7 million viewers on ESPN was four times the same time slot the year before.
Wednesday set another U.S. Open attendance record as fans flocked to make memories, to appreciate. The crowd included Tiger Woods, Spike Lee, Gladys Knight, Seal, Zendaya, Dionne Warwick, Anthony Anderson and fashion icon Anna Wintour.
And Serena won again, this time stunning the No. 2 player in the world, Annet Kontaveit, 7-6 (7-4), 2-6, 6-2. Kontaveit, 26, was a 3-year-old toddler in Estonia when Serena won her first of open-era-record 23 majors in 1999. That was just a few years after we had first seen Williams as a teen at the Miami Open, then on Key Biscayne., flying around with plastic beads clacking on her braids.
We had no idea what we were seeing for the first time, the gift of greatness.
Wednesday the little girl was, at 40, a first-time mom who announced she is “evolving” from tennis to devote herself to family, first, and also to a growing business. But, toward that:
“It’s no rush here,” she said in her on-court interview after the 2 1/2-hour match. “I’m loving this crowd. Oh my goodness. There’s a little left in me. I think you can only have this experience once in a lifetime.”
Despite the adoring New York crowd and the will of America there was so many times Wednesday it seemed she would lose. That time and the No. 2 seed would overtake the aging legend.
At 3-3 in the first set, when she had lost a grueling 21-point, 12-minute game.
In a lopsided second-set loss that included a game given away on two double-faults.
Even in the third set, when a 3-0 lead was on her racket but she squandered a 40-love lead, on serve, and lost.
Every time, she battled back, her record 367th major match win claimed, an historic career extended.
Before the third set she took an allowable off-court break, joking with reports afterward it was not bathroom related, saying, “It wasn’t No. 2.”
Later in the deciding third set Williams’ sportsmanship showed. When her fans’ cheering delayed Kontaveit’s serve, Serena calmed the noise, gently wagging a forefinger for decorum.
The huge crowd hushed.
Williams’ third-round singles match is Friday vs. Aussie Ajla Tomljanovic, No. 46 in the WTA rankings.
First, on Thursday night, Serena and older sister Venus, who have won 14 major doubles together, will pair for what could be the last time together. It was Serena’s idea.
One sister has had an epic career of historic note.
The other sister is Serena.
Venus gets forever overshadowed but herself has won seven majors along with all the doubles crowns.
Together they have been the American Dream in the America we all want to believe is real — two sisters, grown up without wealth, taking up the game under their father’s tutelage on the cracked-asphalt courts of tough Compton, California, and becoming ... this.
There is no pressure left now. Only gravy. Everything has been won. Everything has been proven.
“I feel like I have had a big red ‘X’ n my back since I won the U.S. Open in ‘99,” she said last night. “It’s been there my entire career, because I won my first Grand Slam early in my career. But now it’s different. I feel like I’ve already won, figuratively, mentally. It’s just pretty awesome the things I’ve done.”
Before the deciding third set, after getting steamrolled in the second, during that short off-court break, she said later that she thought to herself, “Serena, you’ve already won. Just play. Be Serena.’”
She was. And it was glorious.
