The second stop on Serena Williams’ farewell tour was a short one.
The 40-year-old Williams fell to 0-2 in matches since
announcing “the countdown has begun” on her career, losing 6-4, 6-0 to U.S.
Open champion Emma Raducanu in the Western & Southern Open on Tuesday
night.
Williams said last week in a Vogue magazine essay and an
Instagram post that her career was winding down, although she did not
explicitly say the U.S. Open, which begins Aug. 29 in New York, would be her
last tournament.
The Cincinnati event was the second U.S. Open tuneup for
Williams, and the next time she takes the court will be at Flushing Meadows.
She lost to Belinda Bencic in straight sets last week in Toronto. A day before
the announcement, Williams beat Nuria Parrizas-Diaz for her first match win
since the 2021 French Open.
Williams is a 23-time Grand Slam champion, most recently in
2017 at the Australian Open, when she was pregnant with daughter Olympia. She
said wanting to expand her family was a big reason she plans to step away.
Raducanu, ranked No. 19 in the world, was sharp as she
dispatched Williams — and quieted the vocally pro-Williams crowd — in 1 hour, 5
minutes.
“I can’t believe I just played Serena Williams,” the
19-year-old Raducanu said. “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 (age) gap and watching her growing up, it was an amazing experience to just
play her.”
Williams did not speak to reporters after the match.
Fans cheered heartily when Williams was introduced, and
again when she won her first point on a Raducanu error in the second game.
Williams yelled in frustration when she double-faulted and screamed even louder
and pumped her fist when she won the third game of the first set.
“I just knew how important every single point was because
you let up a little bit, yeah, she’s going to be all over you,” Raducanu said.
“She’s just such a legend.”
Down 2-0 in the first set, she fought back within 4-3 and
then 5-4, but Raducanu closed out the set at love. Raducanu rolled from there,
with Williams looking frustrated and even resigned near the end.
Williams was sidelined for a year by a torn hamstring
suffered last year at Wimbledon, and her late-career injuries have contributed
to inconsistency on the court.
The players thrilled the crowd with an exciting rally in the
fifth game of the second set, won by Williams with a forehand volley. But she
double-faulted on the next point on the way to being broken.
She briskly left the court after the match, waving to the
crowd as she exited.
“I think that the crowd was pretty electric,” Raducanu said.
“The stadium was really packed, and even if they were cheering for Serena ... I
was prepared for that.”
Raducanu, who faces veteran Victoria Azarenka in Wednesday’s
second round, has not won a title since her out-of-nowhere triumph at the U.S.
Open last year.
In the men’s draw, top-ranked Daniil Medvedev of Russia
advanced to the third round, beating 24th-ranked Botic van de Zandschlup 6-4,
7-5.
Medvedev, banned by Wimbledon for his country’s invasion of Ukraine,
was coming off a second-round loss to Wimbledon finalist Nick Kyrgios last week
in Canada.
Kyrgios beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 7-5, 6-4 on
Tuesday.
Also Tuesday, four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka was
eliminated by Shuai Zhang, 6-4, 7-5.
The tournament lost another big name, Coco Gauff, when she
retired from her match against qualifier Marie Bouzkova with a left ankle
injury. Gauff had her ankle taped after the first set and dropped out after the
first game of the second set.
Karolina Pliskova advanced with a 7-5, 6-1 win over
Williams’ older sister, Venus. Bencic fell to Sorana Cirstea, 6-2, 6-7 (3),
6-4.
Rafael Nadal, sidelined since withdrawing from Wimbledon
with an abdominal tear, practiced before a large crowd. The 22-time Grand Slam
champion is scheduled to play Borna Corcic on Wednesday.