Us Open: Serena Williams’ last beaten by Tomljanovic

The career of one of the greatest players in history ended with a straight to the net, between tears, hers and all of Arthur Ashe, who gave her an endless ovation with the background music Simply the Best by Tina Turner. Serena Williams says goodbye and leaves, defeated in the third round of the US Open by a splendid Ajla Tomljanovic with a score of 7-5 6-7 (4) 6-1 at the end of an incredible match, which lasted over three hours.

wasted opportunities

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The former world number one was ahead in the first set 5-3 and in the second even 4-0: in both cases she served for the partial but the Australian was very good at not being influenced, she remained focused and exploited at best all occasions to stay in the match. Despite the comeback suffered in the second set, Serena managed to bring him home, but in the third she couldn’t do anything against Tomljanovic, a sort of robot both in attitude and in play (she made very little mistakes). The last big thrill in the decisive game, where she canceled 5 match points with incredible winners, before giving up.

“I thank my father, my mother and every single person who brought me here, and I want to thank Venus. Without Venus, there would be no Serena. Think again? I don’t think so, but you never know,” she said in tears. .

the numbers

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And so, after 23 Grand Slams, 73 titles, 856 games won, 94 and more millions of euros earned only as prize money, four Olympic golds, 319 weeks from # 1, the spaceship that brought Serena Williams to earth takes off again, to unknown destinations and hopefully happy, very happy, for this mother, wife, entrepreneur, self-confident and fearless woman, of nothing and no one. She introduced herself to the world of tennis, along with Venus, dad Richard, and that clan that everyone looked at sideways, like an alien entity.

And in fact, it was alien for real, as it showed us, 25 years in advance, what the tennis of the future would be like. A tennis that still has not gone out of fashion today and that has been defeated only by the identity card, by time, by purely physical issues. No one has been bigger than Serena in recent years. None. With good peace of all her opponents, from Justine Henin to Kim Cljisters, from Maria Sharapova to her sister Venus: of course, they beat her in single matches and tournaments, and many others like them, but to get close to her, not even for dream.

Olympus

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If you look back, very few players worthy of being in that kind of tennis Olympus come to mind: Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, Billie Jean King, Margaret Smith Court (who precedes her, the only one, in Grand Slam victories, 24). With Billie Jean King, however, Serena has one thing in common that makes her even greater: it was a revolution. Not a revolutionary, but a revolution indeed. On the court he swept away with his overwhelming physical arrogance accompanied by an underestimated basic technique, the old dictates of tennis, clarifying that from that moment on, indeed from her onwards, foil and beautiful style in this game no, they weren’t going to be as effective anymore, and he made it clear as long as his physique allowed it, for about twenty years. The real miracle, however, did it off the pitch. “The Greatest” wrote on her cover dedicated to her Time. And did you write it because you were “simply” an extraordinary tennis player? No. Because Serena has been an impetuous source of inspiration for a generation of women (and men) of color, in a way that’s really hard to explain. As Lewis Hamilton did in F1, a great friend of hers and who admittedly drew inspiration from her, Serena won, she dominated in a sport that before her and Venus was the exclusive prerogative of whites. For this reason, now, she is not only a champion, but an icon. Serena lasted so long at the top not only because she was an amazing champion on the field, but because she went further, not allowing herself to get bored. It also showed that women can afford to mix a normal life with a professional life, that yes, it is difficult but possible, even for someone like her, who has always chosen the path of “I do everything and I do everything by myself”, from fashionable tennis, from television to investments in the Miami Dolphins, from the film production house to a thousand other interests.

never bored

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And it is precisely in this way that she has guaranteed a long career, in which tennis has never made her feel tired, alone, bored, never worn her out, indeed even now it seems an integral, vital, essential part of her. life. And then she was cool, she imposed the fashion and her style of her in that world that saw her as an alien, she dressed and made up as she wanted, she always did everything as she wanted, from the top of her greatness of her in the game. But “Time Flies”, time flies, and Serena is no longer able to hold the pitch, to bear all the weight of her game, to maintain a balance in her greatness. Immense, unique. Thank you very much.

the other matches

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There were no big surprises on the fifth day of the women’s draw. Very good Coco Gauff (the eighteen year old American is growing more and more), who beat her compatriot Madison Keys (6-2 6-3), Giorgi’s executioner, without any problem. On the other hand, her magical summer continues with the French Caroline Garcia, who by dint of deadly services reached the round of 16 beating the former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu. Also the Russian of Italy, Ludmila Samsonova (defeated Krunic), also Ons Jabeur (with difficulty on Rogers), Zhang and Kudermetova, the only player who until now has never lost her service in this tournament.