The words are Shakespeare’s, but the sentiment belonged firmly to Serena Williams on Tuesday night, at least from the perspective of an adoring Centre Court crowd. They were there to witness the second coming of a sporting legend and, hanging on her every move, they got what they came for.

Some may have feared that Williams, 44 years old and playing her first singles match since 2022, might suffer a mauling at the hands of Maya Joint, an opponent who was not even born when the American won the first half dozen of her 23 grand slam singles titles. They needn’t have worried; Serena Williams was unmistakably Serena Williams. 

The aura of old remained intact, and may even have been magnified by her lengthy absence. Her serve, once the most feared shot in the women’s game, was as silken as ever – and, once she had worked through the gears, barely less destructive in its force and accuracy. Williams can still crush a groundstroke with the best of them, certainly when the ball is in her wheelhouse, and neither has time diminished the mental intensity that made her the finest competitor of her generation. 

Whatever has been lost over the past four years – a period in which she has welcomed a second daughter into the world, devoted more time to her business interests and become a figurehead for the efficacy of GLP-1 weight-loss medications – Williams remains a formidable competitor.

How the second coming of Serena Williams gathered momentum

Understandably, it took time for her to rouse herself, to shake off the rust of competitive inertia. Yet the mentality of a champion is the last thing to go. Williams demonstrated as much when she stood within a point of a straight-sets defeat. Had she folded in that instant, had she failed to meet the moment with the spirit of old, few would have blamed her. She had produced a decent performance. She had kept things close and made a match of it.

But that is not the kind of thinking that wins you seven Wimbledon titles, and Williams’ refusal to go quietly offered an emphatic response to the myopic minority who questioned whether she was worthy of a place in the draw. 

As she threw down two big serves, the second an unreturnable 122mph delivery that brought up a set point of her own, it was hard to believe this was the same woman who only a few months ago posted a video of herself serving for the first time since February 2023. And as Williams won the next point, patiently outrallying Joint to level the match – who said she couldn’t run? – her reaction spoke of expectation rather than serendipity. There was no bellicose explosion of emotion, no roaring or histrionics. Instead, a silent raised fist acknowledged a job well done, while an impassive expression signalled that more work remained.

Criticism of Serena Williams’s return – and why it was misplaced

For some, though, all that mattered was her inability to complete the task. Williams’ 6-3, 6-7 (6-8), 6-3 defeat merely confirmed what these well-informed knew all along: that the sport has moved on in her absence. That the rank and file now wield just as much power as Williams from the baseline, and will no longer be intimidated by her game. That she has lost half a step, either struggling to get into the corners or failing to summon her former weight of shot once there. A few went even further. Williams’s decision to return to the competitive fray on one of the sport’s biggest stages without playing a warm-up event was an insult to the tournament, it was said; as such, she got what she deserved. So the arguments ran.

Such analysis vastly underplays the difficulty of competing on a grass court, let alone an indoor grass court. A closed roof locks in humidity, making a naturally slick surface even slippier. Players can compensate to some degree by getting lower to the court, but the quick starts and rapid changes of direction required at elite level inevitably become more challenging. Hard courts, however, are another matter. There, Williams would almost certainly be quicker. Only she knows where her journey will take her next but, should she choose to play at the US Open, there will be a sturdier basis on which to judge the quality of her movement.

Either way, it should be acknowledged that the law of diminishing returns kicks in mercilessly after 40. Some balls are simply no longer worth running for. It is hard for a player at any level to accept that reality, let alone one of WIlliams’s stature. Who wants to play the role of bystander as balls you would once have chased down with ease instead sail past? It is a blow to the ego, an unwanted reminder of your own mortality, both sporting and otherwise. And yet it is a necessary art, one where the skill lies in being selective, in shepherding your resources, in saving the greatest effort for the moments of greatest need. 

That is precisely what Williams did when presented with the opportunity to level the match, hanging tough to come out on the right side of a 13-stroke rally. Would moments like that would have been made simpler by playing a warm-up event? Undoubtedly. There is no substitute for match play, where adrenaline and nerves come into play, and physical commitment is at the maximum. But as Williams explained in her pre-tournament press briefing, she remained unsure about whether to accept a wildcard right up to the eve of the qualifying competition, a deadline beyond which the decision would have been taken out of her hands. 

Why Serena Williams deserved her place in the draw

She was permitted that luxury because she is a seven-time Wimbledon champion and one of the greatest players in tennis history. That status was earned, not conferred. To view her participation simply through the prism of the £80,000 cheque that might otherwise have gone to Katie Volynets, the American world No 101 who was next on the entry list, seems pedantic, reductive and self-righteous. 

It also ignores the restorative effect the victory might have for Joint, a fine young player who has been ranked as high as 28th but has struggled for form this year. Coming into the fortnight, the 20-year-old had lost all but one of her previous 13 matches. Now she has one of the most significant victories of her career, a result that will forever remain a personal reference point. Not everyone can say they have beaten Serena Williams at Wimbledon. How do you put a price on that?

As for the All England Club, commercial reality was always going to outweigh other considerations. Even in retirement, Williams remains one of the biggest names in world sport. Her comeback was one of the most significant stories of the year, generating huge buzz around the tournament. It would have been madness to deny her a wildcard. No doubt Volynets was disappointed to miss out, but the disappointment of millions of tennis fans worldwide would have been far greater had it been the other way around. 

As it is, the woman who evolved away from the sport four years ago has now revolved back. Not as a perfect recreation of her peak self – because that would be impossible – and seemingly with more humble objectives, if her insistence that she just wants to “have fun” and enjoy the sport from a new perspective is to be believed.

“I don’t need to win, I’ve won more than most people in their whole lives,” Williams said last month at Queen’s Club, where her doubles partnership with Victoria Mboko lasted just one match before the Canadian suffered an injury.

“That is not important to me, and it’s important I keep reminding myself of that. I don’t have anything to prove, I don’t have anything to lose. Everything here is to gain.”

It may be a while before we learn what Williams has gained so far, given that she did not speak to the media following her defeat. What we do know is that the interregnum is over. For how long, who knows? In many ways, the uncertainty is part of the fun.

Serena Williams may not be able to recall time past but, as her brief singles adventure in SW19 showed, she can still have plenty of impact on time present.

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The 44-year-old American, seven of whose 23 grand slam titles have come on the lawns of the All England Club, has been awarded the final remaining wildcard for the women’s draw.

Williams’ last competitive appearance as a singles player came at the US Open in 2022, when she was beaten in the third round by Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic. Notably, she stopped short of saying she was retiring, insisting that she was simply “evolving away” from tennis. 

Williams’ return marks the culmination of a slow-burning saga that began last October, when her re-entry to the drug-testing pool, a necessary precursor to any competitive comeback, became the focus of feverish speculation. 

She played down that conjecture until the start of this month, when she announced she would play doubles with Victoria Mboko at Queen’s Club. The partnership lasted just one match before an injury forced the Canadian teenager to withdraw from the event. 

Williams continued her comeback in Berlin, where she lost in the first round of the doubles alongside Karolina Muchova, the Czech world No 11. The outcome notwithstanding, that appearance, which came hard on the heels of the announcement that she would compete in the women’s doubles at Wimbledon with her sister Venus, 46, left Williams optimistic about the state of her game.

What has Serena Williams said about her level since returning to tennis?

“I felt pretty good out there,” she said. “I felt actually more nimble and sturdy and quicker than the first match at Queens. Overall I felt pretty good, just physically and quickness, which I think you need a lot of on grass.”

WIlliams added that it would be “fun” competing with Venus in SW19, where the sisters have claimed the doubles title six times. But she remained evasive when asked if she would be interested in taking up the final singles wildcard if it were offered.

“Would you be interested that I took it?” she replied to her interrogator. “Do you think I’m ready for singles? I need to get to work. That’s the question of the hour. I don’t know, I don’t know.”

That stance has clearly changed over the past five days. But while it will be fascinating to see Williams she fares, the odds remain stacked against a deep run. She has not won a singles match at the All England Club since 2019, when she was trounced in the final by Simona Halep, and it remains to be seen how she will cope with the more onerous physical demands of competing one-on-one. That said, if history has taught us anything, it is that writing off the great American is a fool’s game.   

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The 44-year-old, who returned to the drug-testing pool last October and has spent the eight months since playing down talk of a potential comeback, has been granted a wildcard to  play doubles alongside Victoria Mboko, the Canadian world No 9.

It will be Williams’ first appearance since she bade farewell to the sport at the 2022 US Open. At the time, the 23-time grand slam champion stopped short of saying she was retiring, suggesting instead that she was “evolving away” from tennis.

The possibility of a return drew closer in February, when Williams’ name was restored to the International Tennis Integrity Agency’s list of active players. 

But it was only when the former world No 1 posted a video of herself striding on to a tennis court that her plans became clear. “Guess everybody heard the news,” read the strapline. 

Serena Williams: ‘Queen’s Club feels like the perfect place to begin’

“Queen’s Club feels like the perfect place to begin this next chapter,” Williams said in a statement. “Grass has given me some of the most meaningful moments of my career, and I’m excited to be back competing on one of the sport’s most iconic stages.”

It remains to be seen whether the American’s appearance at Queen’s will be the prelude to a reappearance at Wimbledon, where she has lifted the Venus Rosewater dish on seven occasions. It is equally unclear whether she plans to return to the singles court. 

What we do know is that Williams has trodden a similar path before. In 2022, she ended a year-long injury hiatus by partnering Ons Jabeur at Eastbourne and went on to play singles at Wimbledon, where she was beaten in the opening round by Harmony Tan of France. 

Whatever her ultimate goal, the tennis world is certain to welcome Williams back into the fold. As one of the greatest players in the history of the game, there will be a place for her in the draw of any tournament she should wish to contest.

“Serena brought the game to another level and it is incredible for the sport that she’s pushing the boundaries and coming back,” said Martina Navratilova, whose record as the oldest former world No 1 to return to the tour, achieved two months shy of her 44th birthday, will now be eclipsed.

“To many of the younger players, they never had the opportunity to play her. Some may have never watched her on television. So this will be a new and exciting experience.”

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Ashleigh Barty won the Australian Open and looked ready to dominate the women’s game for years to come. Within two months she had retired, giving way to another all-conquering No 1 in Iga Swiatek, who would go on compile a season for the ages. Not at Wimbledon, though, where Elena Rybakina, representing Kazakhstan but born in Moscow, came out of left field to lift the title and confound the All England Club’s ban on Russian and Belarusian players.

The players we expected to shine at the beginning of the year were not the same ones we were talking about by the end of it. Garbiñe Muguruza, unable to sustain the resurgent form that carried her to victory at the 2021 WTA Finals, won just a dozen matches. Anett Kontaveit, the finalist in Guadalajara, rose to second in the world but barely made a ripple at the majors. Injuries were rife among the previous year’s grand slam finalists, with Jennifer Brady, Barbora Krejcikova, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Karolina Pliskova all missing large chunks of the season, while Emma Raducanu, the defending US Open champion, was afflicted by a string of physical problems. 

Others started the year promisingly only to fall away. Danielle Collins made her first major final at the Australian Open but, hampered by a lingering neck injury, was unable to build on her outstanding early form. Paula Badosa, a title winner in Sydney, reached a career-high ranking of second but suffered disappointment at the majors and finished the year at 13th.  

Exciting new players emerged. Czech teenager Linda Fruhvirtova won in Chennai. Diane Parry, a former junior world No 1, dethroned Krejcikova in Paris – where China’s Qinwen Zheng likewise announced herself to the wider world with a brilliant run to the last 16.

Meanwhile, Ons Jabeur and Jessica Pegula were among the more established performers who made major strides – not forgetting Alizé Cornet, whose Indian summer included a first grand slam quarter-final at Melbourne Park, and Wimbledon semi-finalist Tatjana Maria – while Caroline Garcia rediscovered the exhilarating form that once moved Andy Murray to tip her as a future No 1.

With Pegula and Collins leading the way, the US also enjoyed an encouraging year. Madison Keys, a surprise semi-finalist at Melbourne Park, looked more her old self. Amanda Anisimova beat defending champion Naomi Osaka at the Australian Open and went on to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals. And, at the absurdly precocious age of 18, Coco Gauff reached the singles and doubles finals at Roland Garros. But as one American star waxed, another waned, Serena Williams bidding farewell to the game (for now, at least) in unforgettable style at the US Open. 

No consideration of the past year would be complete without special mention of Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska, a finalist in Lyon only a week after fleeing Odessa with her younger sister Ivanna in the face of Russian bombing, and her wonderfully unorthodox compatriot Daria Snigur, whose first-round upset of Simona Halep was among the highlights of the US Open. 

As Yastremska, Snigur and others reminded us, there were more important things than tennis going on in the world in 2022. With that in mind, here are our picks for the year’s best moments.  

Best player: Iga Swiatek

There are many ways to quantify the brilliance of Swiatek in 2022. Most are glaringly obvious. The French and US Open triumphs that made Swiatek the first player to win two majors in a season since Angelique Kerber in 2016. The 37-match winning streak that ran from late February to early July – the longest such run since 1990 – and brought titles in Doha, Indian Wells, Miami, Stuttgart, Rome and Paris. The manner in which, having arrived at No 1 by default following Barty’s retirement, Swiatek cemented the position through sheer dominance, winning all but nine of her 76 matches to finish the season 6,030 points ahead of her nearest rival. 

Yet Swiatek’s emergence as the world’s best player was about more than just numbers. On and off the court, the 21-year-old flourished in every way a player can flourish. After the emotional ups and downs of the previous season, when she suffered tearful defeats at the Tokyo Olympics and the WTA Finals, Swiatek made good on her stated aims of finding greater mental consistency and expanding her tactical repertoire. 

The winds of change were first felt at the Australian Open, where she twice came from a set down to make the semi-finals of a hard-court major for the first time. Asked what she would take from her run, the Pole said she had learned that she didn’t need to perform perfectly to win, even on hard courts, and spoke with enthusiasm of her more aggressive game style and ability to utilise her mental and physical strengths with the same effectiveness as her gyrating topspin forehands. 

The lessons would stick. Under the shrewd stewardship of Tomasz Wiktorowski, the fellow Pole to whom she turned during the off-season after taking the difficult decision to part ways with Piotr Sierzputowski, her coach of the previous six years, the greater mental resilience and adaptability she had craved became ever more apparent. Only at Wimbledon, where she seemed to talk herself out of contention long before falling to a third-round defeat against Cornet, did Swiatek’s self-belief falter. 

If grass remains an unsolved mystery for now, elsewhere the Pole established herself as a supreme problem solver. That point was underlined by her response to that historic Centre Court defeat and the inevitable lull that followed. Little about Swiatek’s post-Wimbledon form suggested she would go on to triumph at Flushing Meadows, yet the way she bounced back from unexpected losses to Garcia in Warsaw, Beatriz Haddad Maia in Toronto and Keys in Cincinnati said everything about her evolution as a competitor, particularly given her discontent over the lighter balls in use over the US Open series. 

Beyond the tactical and technical refinements she brought to her game (a greater willingness to dictate from the baseline and kill off points at the net, a more secure second serve), Swiatek also established herself as the voice and moral conscience of the women’s game. The blue and yellow ribbon she pinned to her cap following the outbreak of the Ukraine war remained in place to the season’s end, a symbol of the solidarity she expressed in both word and deed. The Pole used her French Open winners’ speech to urge Ukraine to “stay strong”, and later staged an exhibition event in Krakow that raised €422,000 for children affected by the war. 

Nor did her commitment to social welfare end there. Not for the first time, Swiatek marked World Mental Heath Day in munificent fashion, donating the prize money from her run to the Ostrava Open final to a Polish charity that helps children with mental issues. And when allegations of sexual and physical abuse were levelled against Miroslaw Skrzypczynski, the president of the Polish tennis federation, she was quick to speak out on social media, calling for a full investigation and declaring herself “against violence in sports, in tennis, in every discipline and in everyday life”. 

It is easy to forget, from a distance of 12 months, that Swiatek began the year ranked ninth. At that point, Barty was the runaway world No 1, Raducanu and Fernandez had recently contested an all-teenage US Open final, and there was a widely held expectation that Muguruza, the newly crowned WTA Finals champion, would feature as prominently in the season ahead as Kontaveit, the woman she beat in the final. No one was really talking about Swiatek. Now, as we ponder who will claim the big titles in 2023, she is the first name on everyone’s lips. 

Most improved player: Ons Jabeur

Like Taylor Fritz on the men’s side, Jabeur might seem a slightly left-field candidate in this category. But consider the evidence. The 28-year-old, who had never previously been beyond the last eight at a major, reached back-to-back grand slam finals at Wimbledon and the US Open. She won the biggest title of her career at the Madrid Open. She qualified for the WTA Finals for the first time. And, like Swiatek, Jabeur climbed the toughest rungs of the professional ladder, rising from 10th in the world to finish the year at a career-high No 2.

As ever, Jabeur did it all while carrying the hopes of a people, a country and a continent. Such has been her trailblazing influence, she could be forgiven for trading in “Ons” for “The First Arab or African Woman to…” – words that almost invariably precede any mention of her name. Speaking of which, did we mention that she became the first African woman to reach a slam final since Sandra Reynolds in 1960?

“I want to go bigger, inspire many more generations,” Jabeur said after losing out to Rybakina in the Wimbledon final.

“Tunisia is connected to the Arab world, is connected to the African continent. That area, we want to see more players, you know, it’s not like Europe. I want to see more players from my country, from the Middle East, from Africa. I think we didn’t believe enough at certain points that we can do it. Now I’m just trying to show that [we can].”

Among several other notable contenders for the title of most improved player, two deserve special mention. 

The first is Jessica Pegula, who won the biggest title of her career in Guadalajara and reached the quarter-finals of every major bar Wimbledon. Ranked just outside the top 20 before the Australian Open, the 28-year-old New Yorker was a byword for consistency in 2022, her equanimity and ability to adapt to circumstance making her a fixture at the sharp end of tournaments as she finished the year in third spot. 

The second is Haddad Maia, who rose 68 places in the rankings to finish the year at a career-high 15th. The powerful Brazilian has not had the smoothest journey in the professional game – at 26, she already has four surgeries behind her – but, over the course of an outstanding summer, she demonstrated what she can do when fit. A dozen straight grass-court wins earned Haddad Maia her first-tour level titles in Nottingham and Birmingham, while her superb run to the Toronto final included a three-set win over Swiatek. 

Respectful nods must also go to a trio of Russians. Veronika Kudermetova made the top 10 for the first time after a season that included final appearances in Melbourne, Dubai and Istanbul and a first grand slam quarter-final at Roland Garros, while Ekaterina Alexandrova and Liudmila Samsonova were both title winners and top-20 debutants. 

But did anyone make greater strides in 2022 than Jabeur? It is only 18 months since her maiden title win in Birmingham made her the first Arab woman to win a WTA Tour event; now, she is consistently challenging for the game’s biggest prizes. Jabeur is improvement personified.

Most heart-warming moment: Tatjana Maria

After beating her compatriot Jule Niemeier at Wimbledon to make her first grand slam semi-final at the age of 34, Tatjana Maria was asked if she ever longed to be recognised not simply as a mother of two, but also as a tennis player and an individual. No, came the German’s refreshingly down-to-earth response – motherhood was the most important thing in her life. 

“I try to keep normal as much as possible, because what makes me proudest is to be a mom,” said Maria after booking a last-four showdown with close friend Jabeur.

There is nothing normal about reaching the last four at Wimbledon, particularly for a player who had only once previously reached the third round of a slam. Yet somehow the unseeded Maria, with all her talk of creches and Pampers and family life, made the extraordinary feel relatable. On the court, she earned universal admiration with emotional victories against a trio of seeded players: Sorana Cirstea, Maria Sakkari and – from match points down, and to the Latvian’s evident displeasure – Jelena Ostapenko. Off the court, she cemented her place in the affections of the English public with her insistence that she was just an ordinary working parent, juggling professional commitments with the more serious business of childcare. 

It was an irresistible combination, and there was barely a dry eye in the house when, after a bewitching contest crammed with all manner of flicks, spins and mind-bending geometry from both women, the victorious Jabeur grabbed Maria by the arm and led her back on court, forgoing any display of triumphalism after reaching the biggest final of her life to orchestrate one final ovation for her “barbecue buddy”. 

After a fortnight overshadowed by talk of player bans and points deductions and legal threats, it was the kind of gracious and joyous moment that a beleaguered tournament needed.

Best newcomer: Qinwen Zheng

In the first three rounds of the French Open, Iga Swiatek lost just a dozen games – the same number she conceded from the quarter-finals onwards. Sandwiched between those all-conquering sequences came an intriguing three-set tussle with China’s Qinwen Zheng, a 19-year-old (now 20) with a future that promises to be as big as her thunderous game. 

As Zheng showed that day, she has the talent and the temperament to live with the very best. It wasn’t just the way she traded blows with Swiatek, or the resilience she demonstrated in saving five set points to overturn a 5-2 first-set deficit. It was also the self-belief she showed against the world’s best player. Her refusal to throw in the towel even after sustaining a debilitating thigh injury. The candour and confidence she showed afterwards, as she calmly explained to the world’s press the role menstrual cramps had played in her loss. They were qualities that marked Zheng out as a player of genuine substance – an impression she confirmed when she again went the distance with Swiatek five months later in San Diego.

But there was more to Zheng’s season than a couple of eye-catching performances against the world No 1. She also racked up a string of impressive, high-profile victories over former grand slam champions. At Roland Garros, in only the second major of her fledgling career, she felled former champion Simona Halep, avenging a semi-final defeat to the Romanian in a 250 event in Melbourne at the start of the year. Zheng dumped out Sloane Stephens en route to round three of Wimbledon, and reached the same stage at the US Open after accounting for Ostapenko. In between came a three-set victory over Bianca Andreescu in Toronto, where Zheng reached her first WTA 1000 quarter-final. 

About the only thing she did not do in 2022 was win a title – unlike the 17-year-old Czech teenager Linda Fruhvirtova, arguably her closest rival for best newcomer, who claimed a maiden tournament victory in Chennai. Zheng did, however, make the final in Tokyo, toppling Badosa and Kudermetova along the way, and her superior record at the slams – and giddying rise from 126 to a career-high 25 in the rankings – make her a worthy winner in this category.

Best match: Caroline Garcia v Iga Swiatek, Poland Open

Swiatek aside, did any woman play better tennis in 2022 than Garcia? The Frenchwoman’s renaissance, after three years pockmarked by injury and dwindling confidence, was among the season’s most uplifting stories. And the catalyst came in Warsaw, where a rampant Garcia rewrote the clay-court playbook with a barnstorming attacking display that at times left Swiatek looking utterly bewildered. 

It was a rare indignity for the Pole and one of the finest performances of the season from Garcia, whose blistering returns and unflinching commitment to attack made for the kind of match from which you simply can’t avert your gaze. A humble 250 event in a country where tennis has yet to form deep roots might seem an unlikely setting for such a contest, yet the context and broader ramifications of the match were fraught with significance. 

All eyes were on Swiatek as she attempted to bounce back from the shock Wimbledon defeat to Cornet that ended her 135-day winning run. Playing in her hometown, and on her beloved red clay – where she had won 18 straight matches – the world No 1 could hardly have wished for more auspicious circumstances. And when she recovered from a ludicrously strong start by Garcia to level the match at a set all, making just one unforced error in the process, it felt almost inevitable she would prevail. Having produced superhuman tennis in the opener, surely Garcia would be hard pushed to reproduce that level down the stretch against the world’s best player, and before a fiercely partisan crowd?

No, as it turned out. A restorative victory on the grass courts of Bad Homburg, her first title in three years, had reignited something in Garcia – reminding her, perhaps, that she was once ranked fourth in the world for a reason. Infused with renewed belief by her compatriot Bertrand Perret, who took up the coaching reins from her father Louis Paul in the off-season, she stuck to her guns, kept attacking and was rewarded with a 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 triumph that set the stage not only for her title win in Poland but for much of what followed. 

And what followed was considerable: victory in Cincinnati, where Garcia completed a perfect set of tournament wins on grass, clay and hard courts and became the first qualifier to win a WTA 1000 event; a first grand slam semi-final at the US Open; the biggest title of her career at the WTA Finals; and a year-end ranking of fourth, only six months after she had fallen to 79th, her lowest position in eight years. Was it all purely down to one result? Of course not. But Garcia went into the second half of the season with the air of a woman who knew that, if she could beat Swiatek, she could beat anyone. 

Biggest shock: Ashleigh Barty’s retirement

In a year full of surprises (Garcia’s renaissance, Swiatek’s dominance, the rise of Pegula, Rybakina’s Wimbledon win, Halep’s suspension, to name but a few), none was greater than Barty’s abrupt retirement from the sport. 

The Australian has always been something of an outlier – it’s not every player that takes a year off to play professional cricket – but no one beyond her immediate circle expected the reigning world No 1 to walk away from the game at the age of 25. 

Every player is wired differently, though, and while it looked from the outside as though the Queenslander was set for a period of era-defining preeminence, especially after ending her country’s 44-year wait for a homegrown Australian Open champion, the reality was very different. As we now know, Barty had already realised her greatest ambition by winning Wimbledon the previous summer. Victory at Melbourne Park was the icing on a cake for which the three-time slam champion no longer had the appetite.  

As the watching world grasped for words, the task of explaining the seemingly inexplicable fell to Barty’s coach, Craig Tyyzer. “It was never about the successes,” said Tyyzer. “It was about fulfilling Ash’s dreams, and she basically did that.”

Best occasion: Serena Williams’s farewell

Every great champion must bow out eventually, and enough legends have exited stage left over the years to prove that no player is bigger than the game. But what if the departee is Serena Williams – global icon, winner of 23 grand slam titles, and quite possibly the greatest female athlete of all time? And what if the scene of her departure is the US Open, the rowdiest, most febrile stop on the grand slam merry-go-round? 

Why then, all bets are off. Then, we reach the juncture where perspective gives way to pandemonium; where a New York crowd not noted for its reticence at the best of times becomes a clamorous wall of deafening, unashamedly partisan noise; where Queen Latifah hails Williams as “the queen of Queens” in a glitzy big-screen video; where the woman of the hour emerges in the kind of outfit more befitting a black-tie gala than a tennis match, all shimmers and sparkles and swirls, and is followed on to court by Billie Jean King, who delivers a typically eloquent panegyric, one legend to another; where Oprah Winfrey narrates video montages, Spike Lee conducts coin tosses, and Bill Clinton and Hugh Jackman look on from the stands. Welcome to prime time, baby. 

And that was just the opening round. A couple of nights later, after Williams had come through her opener against Danka Kovinic to set up a meeting with second seed Kontaveit, we did it all over again. Literally. The video clips, the voiceovers, the dress, the commotion. And you know what? Williams prevailed once more, although only she knew how. “I’m just Serena, you know,” she smiled. 

It all came crashing to a halt against Ajla Tomljanovic in round three – although not before another helping of the now-familiar razzmatazz – but it was the wildest of rides, a farewell like no other. 

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Like a prize fighter moving in for the knockout blow, she forced Tomljanovic into a corner, then swooped forward to bludgeon away a drive volley. A second match point left the lunging Australian skewered deep behind the baseline as she sought in vain to retrieve a forceful approach shot. Resolute and focused, as she had been all evening, Tomljanovic replied with a forehand of peerless excellence; still Williams refused to buckle, drilling an untouchable return.

Five times in all Williams hauled herself back from the precipice, her fearless shot-making and clenched-fist belligerence offering a final glorious vignette of all that she has stood for. As the winner of 23 majors and a global icon for millions, she has long since secured her legacy. Yet, if a career spanning more than a quarter of a century can be encapsulated in one game, this was the one – a statement so powerful that it almost rendered redundant a post-match inquiry about how she hoped to be remembered.

“There’s so many things to be remembered by,” reflected Williams after her 7-5, 6-7 (4-7), 6-1 defeat. “Like the fight. I’m such a fighter. I don’t know. I feel like I really brought something, and bring something, to tennis. The different looks, the fist pumps, the just crazy intensity. 

“Obviously the passion, I think, is a really good word. Yeah, just continuing through ups and downs. I could go on and on. But I just honestly am so grateful that I had this moment, and that I’m Serena.”

Those sentiments were shared by her adoring New York public, who rose as one to acclaim their six-time champion as she clipped one last forehand into the net to signal the end. She had given them everything, turning back the clock with a signature display of power, athleticism and bellowing passion, and they had replied in kind, willing her on with a deafening wall of noise.

The preternatural composure of Tomljanovic ensured it was not enough. The laser-like focus the 46th-ranked Australian showed to hold her nerve amid the cacophony, shrugging off the graceless glee with which the crowd greeted her every misstep, proved every bit as decisive as her ability to match the power and obduracy of Williams. 

“I just really blocked it out as much as I could,” said Tomljanovic. “It did get to me a few times internally. I mean, I didn’t take it personally because I would be cheering for Serena, too, if I wasn’t playing her. But it was definitely not easy.”

The 29-year-old nonetheless matched Williams step for step, overcoming a 3-5 deficit to take the first set, battling back from 4-0 down in the second to force a tiebreak, and responding to a potentially fatal break of serve at the start of the decider by winning six games in a row. 

It was an absorbing, high-quality contest, a far cry from the tepid performance Williams produced against Emma Raducanu in Cincinnati, and the level she showed – combined with the self-confessed vagueness of her intentions – will inevitably turn thoughts to the possibility that she might reconsider her decision to “evolve away” from the sport. 

Williams’s movement may not be what it once was – understandably, given that she will be 41 next month – but it has improved with each successive match in New York. She has played only six singles matches since returning from a year-long injury absence at Wimbledon this summer, yet her progress over the course of that brief body of work has been such that it seems natural to wonder what a more sustained push might yield. 

“I don’t know, I’m not thinking about that,” said Williams, before adding with a mischievous smile: “I always did love Australia, though.”

Yet she wrote touchingly of her desire to have a second child in the Vogue article announcing her retirement, and it is farfetched to imagine she will pitch up in Melbourne for January’s Australian Open. Williams conceded as much as she reflected on how far she has come – and where she has yet to go.

“It takes a lot of work to get here,” she said. “Clearly I’m still capable. It takes a lot more than that. I’m ready to be a mom, explore a different version of Serena. Technically in the world I’m still super young, so I want to have a little bit of a life while I’m still walking.”

The clearest indication of her feelings came in the emotionally raw aftermath of defeat, as she tearfully addressed her family at courtside.

“Thank you, daddy, I know you’re watching,” she said. “Thanks, mom. I just thank everyone that’s here, that’s been on my side for so many years, literally decades. But it all started with my parents, and they deserve everything, so I’m really grateful to them. 

“And I wouldn’t be Serena if there wasn’t Venus, so thank you, Venus. She’s the only reason Serena Williams ever existed. 

“It’s been a fun ride. It’s been the most incredible ride and journey I’ve ever been on in my life. I’m just so grateful to every single person that’s ever said: ‘Go, Serena’ in their life. I’m just so grateful, because you got me here.”

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She may not win it – although few would rule that out now, after her dramatic 7-6 (7-4), 2-6, 6-2 victory over Anett Kontaveit, the second seed – but at the deepest, most visceral level, the tournament is hers. She knows it, her adoring New York public know it, and her opponents have not been allowed to forget it.

Who else gets to walk out to a pre-match video montage? At what other major would a home favourite benefit from Queen Latifah, no less, declaring over a blaring sound system that the opposing player is about to face the queen of “never, ever going down without a fight”, and that “you don’t stand a chance if you see this face”? Kontaveit must have felt she had been thrown to the lions even before the warm-up had begun.

The US Open would surely do well to rethink the timing of its big-screen tributes to Williams. Like Danka Kovinic on Monday, Kontaveit was made to enter the cauldron of Arthur Ashe Stadium – where 29,959 emotionally inflamed spectators lay in wait – before the video rhapsody to the six-time champion was played. Yet convention dictates that the higher-ranked player takes to the court last and Williams, who announced her impending retirement earlier this month, arrived in New York at No 605 on the ladder. Forcing her opponents to wait courtside while the razzamatazz plays out feels inappropriate at best, brazenly partisan at worst. 

Kontaveit handled it all with grace, courage and admirable determination. But as the crowd greeted every Williams success with a wall of enraptured noise, regardless of whether their joy was sparked by a Williams winner or a Kontaveit error, a line was crossed. Williams tacitly acknowledged as much early in the decider, sportingly raising a hand to quieten the clamour as Kontaveit prepared to serve after a close call had gone in the Estonian’s favour, averting a break.  

Amid the unbridled passion and noise that cascaded down from the stands, the combatants staged a contest of rich quality. Both women remained unsparing in their commitment to attack; each stubbornly refused to give ground in the face of setbacks. When Williams smashed down an ace to take the first set, having earlier faltered as she attempted to serve out at 5-4, Kontaveit responded with an irresistible passage of play, storming into a 5-1 lead in the blink of an eye. 

But this US Open belongs to Williams, and down the stretch she was irresistible. She returned from a bathroom break to cruise through her opening service game, wrested Kontaveit’s serve from her with a searing forehand winner, and shrugged off the subsequent loss of her own delivery with some mighty returning to restore her advantage. She would not be caught.

There was a warm exchange between the pair at the net afterwards, and the cordiality extended into the press room, where Kontaveit hailed the performance of the “amazing” Williams even while admitting it was hard to compete in such a febrile atmosphere. Asked if she felt Williams has become bigger than the sport, Kontaveit declined to take the bait, simply acknowledging that the occasion was about her opponent. 

“It was her moment,” said Kontaveit, whose own frequent brilliance was met with stony silence by the otherwise raucous audience. “I was trying to do my own thing. I mean, of course, this is totally about her. I was very aware of that.”

Later, though, once the conversation had switched to Estonian, Kontaveit was overcome with emotion as she responded to an inquiry about the crowd, offering a halting answer before abruptly leaving the room.

“It was something I never experienced before,” she said through a veil of tears. “I don’t think it’s a personal attack against me or anything. I mean, it’s fair. I definitely had no shame losing to Serena… It was very difficult with the crowd.”

As Kontaveit would be the first to acknowledge, none of this is on Williams. The adulation lavished upon the 23-time grand slam champion this week has been earned countless times over in the 27 years since she played her first professional match. From the United States Tennis Association to the fans and the media, there is an overarching desire to give Williams the send-off she deserves (even if she has left the door open for an improbable about turn). Rightly so. Yet it is also important to respect the boundaries of fairness. 

It would be a shame if all the hoopla surrounding Williams, who faces Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic next, tarnished her farewell. Nobody wants to see a palpably decent and respectful young woman like Kontaveit reduced to tears, and while it would be foolhardy to suppose that tens of thousands of baying New Yorkers can be controlled, the timing of video tributes is another matter. 

Throughout her career, Williams’s tennis has always spoken for itself; she does not require a narrator, and needs no introduction.

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Then again, this was about more than just sport. New York had come to pay tribute to an icon, to a woman who, as King said afterwards, has “touched hearts and minds” and become a standard bearer for “diversity, equity and inclusion, especially for women and women of colour”. It was an evening as glittering and extravagant as the achievements of Williams herself. 

Even Williams, who has said she is “evolving away” from tennis, felt the weight of the occasion. The 40-year-old had to pare down the six-layer design of her dress – one for each title she has won in New York – because it was too heavy to move freely. No matter. Her figure-skating inspired outfit, complete with detachable cape, crystal-encrusted bodice, and shoes adorned with diamonds and gold, was perfect for a night on which the stars came out not only above Arthur Ashe Stadium, but within it. 

Bill Clinton, the former US president, was there. Mike Tyson sat beside Martina Navratilova. Matt Damon and Hugh Jackman, brought an appropriate touch of Hollywood. Even the coin toss, in which film director and US Open regular Spike Lee participated, was a star-studded affair. There was just one problem: the champion of 23 grand slams was not quite ready to say goodbye.

Williams, playing her fifth match since returning from a year-long absence at Wimbledon, was understandably nervous in the early stages against Danka Kovinic, a 27-year-old from Montenegro ranked 80th in the world.

But to rapturous acclaim – and the evident delight of her daughter, Olympia, whose beaded hair seemed to channel the spirit of her mother’s younger self – Williams produced a performance of steadily growing authority to claim a 6-3, 6-3 victory. It means the show will go on, at least for another couple of days, until she plays Anett Kontaveit, the second-seeded Estonian whose underwhelming form will offer plenty of encouragement to both Williams and her adoring public.

“I’m just not even thinking about that,” said Williams. “I’m just thinking about just this moment. I think it’s good for me just to live in the moment now.”

What a moment it was. The wall of noise that greeted Williams as she took to the court felt almost tangible. The tournament proudly declared afterwards that 29,402 people showed up to pay homage, which is not bad for a stadium with a capacity of 23, 771. Yet it felt believable, such was the deafening clamour.   

“The atmosphere was a lot,” said Williams. “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. It’s a feeling I’ll never forget, so that meant a lot to me.”

Kovinic is unlikely to forget it in a hurry, either. Once a top-50 player, the Montenegrin has posted the best results of her career at grand slam level this season. She defeated Emma Raducanu en route to the third round of the Australian Open, and reached the same stage at Roland Garros, where she proved a handful for Iga Swiatek, the world No 1. Yet nothing Kovinic has done previously could have prepared her for this.

“In some moments during the match, I couldn’t hear my shots, and also hers. Sometimes it was very tough to see, when she hit the ball, if it was going deep or short,” said Kovinic. “Definitely on the outside courts, we don’t have this experience.”

If it was a trial by fire for Kovinic, the early onus was all on Williams. Two consecutive double faults in the opening game did not make for the most auspicious start, but this was not the Williams who had lost so tamely to Emma Raducanu in Cincinnati. She steadied herself to stave off two break points, back-to-back aces carrying her to game point, and when Kovinic netted a mid-court ball to concede the game, the ear-splitting din must have been audible from Manhattan. 

A similar eruption followed when Williams drilled away a swing volley to claim an early break. But Kovinic had not come merely to make up the numbers. The Montenegrin quickly hit back to level, and another exchange of service games followed before Williams broke to love in the eighth game. This time, she survived a topsy-turvy service game to seal the set. Williams was on her way. Her ball-striking became ever cleaner. Her movement sharpened by the moment. She would not be caught.

Will we ever see her like again? Do not rule it out. Asked afterwards if this would indeed be her last tournament, Williams was intriguingly non-committal. 

“I’ve been pretty vague about it, right?” smiled Williams. “I’m going to stay vague, because you never know.”

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Would Novak Djokovic be allowed to enter the country to compete in the season’s final grand slam? And who would Serena Williams face in what is likely to be the last tournament of her storied career?

The answer to the first question came about an hour before the draw was made, as Djokovic confirmed on social media that he would miss the tournament due to his vaccine status.

“Sadly, I will not be able to travel to NY this time for US Open,” wrote Djokovic, who has not been inoculated against Covid-19 and is therefore unable to enter the country under current regulations. “Thank you #NoleFam for your messages of love and support. Good luck to my fellow players! I’ll keep in good shape and positive spirit and wait for an opportunity to compete again. See you soon tennis world!”

The answer to the second came when the draw was revealed at noon local time, pitting Williams, who earlier this month announced her impending retirement, against Danka Kovinic of Montenegro in the opening round. At the age of 27, the 80th-ranked Kovinic has enjoyed the finest grand slam runs of her career this season, defeating Emma Raducanu en route to the third round of the Australian Open and reaching the same stage at Roland Garros, where she gave a good account of herself against Iga Swiatek, the world No 1. 

Williams, whose haul of 23 majors includes six US Open titles, has claimed just one victory from four matches since returning from a year-long absence at Wimbledon. The American has never previously faced Kovinic, a gifted shot-maker whose powerful serve has undone the likes of Belinda Bencic and Karolina Pliskova in the past, but should she advance she is likely to face Anett Kontaveit, the Estonian second seed, in round two. 

Elsewhere in Williams’s quarter, Ons Jabeur, the Wimbledon finalist and fifth seed, plays home favourite Madison Brengle, while last year’s finalist Leylah Fernandez, seeded 14th, begins against Oceane Dodin of France. 

Emma Raducanu, the 11th seed and defending champion, has been handed a tough opening assignment against Alizé Cornet. The Frenchwoman reached the last eight at the Australian Open in January and ended Swiatek’s 37-match unbeaten streak at Wimbledon. 

Should she advance, Raducanu could face the winner of a blockbuster opening round match between former champion Naomi Osaka and Danielle Collins, the 19th seed and Australian Open finalist, with either Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina or Aryna Sabalenka, a semi-finalist last year, potentially awaiting in the last 16.  

Swiatek will open against Italy’s Jasmine Paolini. The Polish top seed, who has yet to make it past the fourth round in New York, is projected to face the in-form American Jessica Pegula in the last eight. If the seedings hold, Swiatek will play Spanish fourth seed Paula Badosa in the semi-finals.

In the men’s draw, top seed Daniil Medvedev will open his title defence against Stefan Kozlov, an American of Russian descent making his first main draw appearance in New York and ranked 110th. Medvedev’s path to a possible repeat of his epic 2019 final against second seed Rafael Nadal, who will play Australian wild card Rinky Hijikata in the first round, is fraught with hazard. 

Assuming he survives a projected third-round meeting with Nikoloz Basilashvili, the powerful Georgian 31st seed, Medvedev could face Nick Kyrgios, the Wimbledon finalist who won the Citi Open in Washington earlier this month, in round four. Kyrgios, who defeated the Russian world No 1 a fortnight ago in Montreal, must negotiate a tricky opener against his fellow Australian and close friend Thanasi Kokkinakis. 

Medvedev is seeded to face Felix Auger-Aliassime, the sixth seed, in the quarter-finals, while Nadal can expect to play Britain’s Cameron Norrie ahead of a projected semi-final against fellow Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, the third seed.

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Beforehand, the much-hyped contest was romanticised as a battle of past and future, of imperious monarch and young pretender. Raducanu instead made it look like what it was: a 19-year-old up against a player more than twice her age; a meeting of the world No 10 and reigning US Open champion with an opponent who had played only three matches in 13 months, and who announced last week that her retirement is imminent. In every sense, it was too much ground for Williams to make up.

For all her understandable struggles since she returned from a year-long injury absence at Wimbledon, nothing can have prepared the American for this. Laboured in her movement, erratic off the ground and more vulnerable on her second serve than she has ever been, Williams slumped to a 6-4, 6-0 defeat before leaving the stadium with a smile and a wave. There was none of the ceremony that attended her defeat to Belinda Bencic in Toronto last week, where she performed a tearful on-court interview. The champagne that awaited at courtside went unopened, the chance to address the fans who had welcomed her with a rapturous ovation spurned. Williams, who also skipped her post-match press conference, was in no mood for talking.

Yet this was a performance that spoke volumes from Raducanu, who was composed, consistent and clinical as she produced arguably her finest tennis since last September, when she came through qualifying to win at Flushing Meadows without dropping a set. It is indicative of how well she handled the occasion, her celebrated opponent and her own game that Raducanu made just one unforced error in the entire match. Her nimble movement and dominance on serve, where she claimed three-quarters of the points behind both her first and second deliveries, stood in stark contrast to Williams, who won just two of her 16 second-serve points.

“I can’t believe I just played Serena Williams,” said Raducanu. “It’s something that I think I’m really fortunate to have been able to do, and for our careers to have crossed when there’s such a big gap. [After] watching her growing up it, was an amazing experience to just play her, and from the beginning to the end I was, maybe not calm, but I knew how important every single point was, because you let up a little bit and she’s going to be all over you. She’s just such a legend.”

It was an unusual occasion for Raducanu, who for once was neither the star attraction nor the player under the greatest pressure. The tension was nonetheless palpable in the tunnel in the moments before the players went on court. As Raducanu sneaked a peek at her opponent from a safe distance, it became clear that Williams has lost nothing of her formidable aura. 

A flurry of early errors from the American did little to allay rumours that the controversial postponement of the match, which was originally scheduled for Monday night, was intended to allow her more time to recover from a knee problem. Williams, who wore a strip of support tape down her left leg, lost her opening service game to love and emitted a cry of frustration when her second double fault of the afternoon set Raducanu on her way to a second break in the fifth game. It was not what the people – whose number included Naomi Osaka, beaten in the first round by China’s Zhang Shuai, and Grigror Dimitrov – had come to see.

When the ball was in her strike zone, or she was able to land a first serve with the potency of old, Williams looked as dangerous as ever. Yet those moments were few and far between, and elicited a rapid response from Raducanu on the rare occasions they arose. 

When a winning drop shot, something of a late addition to the Williams armoury, gave the veteran a glimmer of daylight on the return, Raducanu snuffed out the danger with intelligent, accurate serving, a pair of aces wide to the deuce court rekindling memories of her exploits at Flushing Meadows. When Williams overpowered her with some huge returning to break in the sixth game, and then held from 0-30 as she powered down two consecutive aces, Raducanu steadied the ship with a love hold. She refused to be overawed.  

“I think that a big part of the match today was definitely the mental side, you know, to not be intimidated by all her achievements,” said Raducanu. “That was what I was focusing the most on, just being really present and thinking of my game, thinking of what I needed to do.”

Raducanu will need to repeat that level of focus in the next round, where she will face another multiple grand slam champion and former world No 1 in the shape of Victoria Azarenka. 

As for Williams, she will head to New York at the end of the month for what will almost certainly be the final tournament of her illustrious career, hoping against hope that will have found the form and fitness to do herself proper justice by then.  

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