Serena Williams does it again! The 40-year-old upset No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit 7-6, 2-6, 6-2 in a three-set thriller at the USOpen Wednesday.
And ultimately, it put Williams into the third round of a draw that has suddenly laid out a plausible path for the quarterfinals or beyond.
Williams has said she’s probably done after this tournament, but no matter where this ends, she’s not running on fumes. Her top level is still very, very good. Imagine what it might be if she said she was fully committing every ounce of energy left in her body to one more year with all the training and tournament preparation and travel that she can physically stand.
She served beautifully. She returned good serves with depth, purpose and pace. In the middle of some rallies, she defended like a 25-year-old, not someone whose movement has precipitously declined over the last few years. For about an hour, Williams turned back the clock. And she barely won it, eking out the set in a tiebreaker.