FLUSHING MEADOWS — Serena Williams delayed her retirement party with her best performance of the year in beating Danka Kovinic to reach the second round of the US Open.
The 23-time grand slam champion was given all the pomp and ceremony that organisers, worried it might be her last professional singles match, could muster and a star-studded crowd packed out Arthur Ashe were tickets were selling for more than £4,000.
There were some nervy moments – Williams missed five consecutive serves in the opening game – but Kovinic faltered at the wrong time deep in a long first set and was then blown away in the second when
Kovinic, possibly the most B-side player to a match in history, was given plenty of time to think about what she had to try and achieve. The players walked out a good 20 minutes after the scheduled start time of 7pm, delayed by a lengthy opening ceremony that included Anika Noni Rose singing the national anthem and a Ukrainian choir performing One Moment in Time, the song Whitney Houston had sung 25 years ago when the Arthur Ashe Stadium was opened.
