Stephen Dunmoye
After early struggles with her serve on Monday evening, Serena Williams took 10 of the final 13 games with a 6-3, 6-3 victory against a 27-year-old from Montenegro who is ranked 80th in the world, Danka Kovinić at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
After the match, during a ceremony celebrating her tennis career, Williams said she got a boost from the vocal crowd of almost 24,000 people as she announced to evolve away from tennis.
In her statement earlier this month, “I have never liked the word retirement. It doesn’t feel like a modern word to me. I’ve been thinking of this as a transition, but I want to be sensitive about how I use that word, which means something very specific and important to a community of people.”
“Maybe the best word to describe what I’m up to is evolution. I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me,”
Meanwhile, Williams will face world No. 2 Anett Kontaveit of Estonia in the round of 64 as well as opening doubles paired with her sister Venus, on Wednesday respectively.
