The 40-year-old’s final career match at the US Open resulted in a gut-wrenching three-set defeat to Australian Ajla Tomljanovic in a match that lasted just over three hours and had just about everything you could possibly expect when the American steps onto Centre Court anywhere in the world.
After the pair traded early breaks, the American looked to have struck the first blow when she broke for a 5-3 lead in the opening set, but Tomljanovic would show nerves of steel and rattle off the next four games to claim it 7-5.
This left Williams with the tough task of having to come from behind once again to extend her singles career, but she rose to the challenge, shooting out to a 4-0 lead after breaking her opponent in the second and fourth games of the second set.
After pegging back a break, Tomljanovic fought off four set points in the eighth game to hold for 3-5, then broke again to level for 5-all before the set went into a tiebreak, which Williams would claim on her fifth set point and keep her singles career ticking for at least one more set.
The Miami native looked to have all the momentum on her side when she broke the 29-year-old Australian to start the final set, but Tomljanovic would break back, claiming the final six games of the match without reply to seal the most famous win of her career.
Serena Williams shakes hands with Ajla Tomlijanovic. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
But it didn’t come without one final twist of drama; serving for the match at 5-1, the Queenslander had to fight off three break points and needed six match points in the epic 15-minute final game to close it out.
She became just the second Australian to ever defeat Serena Williams at a Major, the other being Samantha Stosur, who did it twice: first at Roland Garros in 2010, and of course right here in the final of the 2011 US Open.
At three hours and five minutes, the match clocked in as the longest match the 40-year-old has ever played at Flushing Meadows, and her third-round exit was her equal-earliest since her debut against Irina Spirlea in 1998.
Ironically, Spirlea was the first player to be beaten by Williams at a Major, this coming at the Australian Open earlier that year; Serena then went on to lose to her sister Venus in the second round.
It was in her seventh Major tournament, at the 1999 US Open, that the American, then aged 17 (though just a few weeks short of turning 18) would win her first Major title, defeating Martina Hingis in the final in straight sets to win the first of her 23 Major singles titles.
Until last year’s US Open final between Emma Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez, it was the last time two teenagers would face each other in a Major final.
The feat of winning a first Major title in their seventh appearance at age 17 would also be emulated by Maria Sharapova at Wimbledon in 2004 – and coincidentally it was Williams who was on the receiving end.
By that point in time, the American had become the youngest woman to win four consecutive Major titles – doing so between the 2002 French Open and 2003 Australian Open – achieving what was dubbed the “Serena Slam”.
Each of those four titles were won by beating her sister Venus in the final – but after beating her for a fifth consecutive time in a Major final at Wimbledon in 2003, a knee injury would sideline her for the rest of the year, and prevent her from defending her Australian Open title in 2004.
The American’s bid for a Wimbledon three-peat was ended with the aforementioned loss to Sharapova – and after a second defeat to the Russian in the championship match of the 2004 WTA Finals, Williams would win their final 19 encounters, most by lopsided margins.
Which brings us to, arguably, the most memorable of the American’s 23 Major titles when she thrashed the shell-shocked Sharapova in straight sets in the final of the 2007 Australian Open.
Williams, then 25, arrived at Melbourne Park ranked 81st in the world with so many questions being asked about her fitness, but she would defy all her critics with possibly the most memorable fortnight ever seen in Grand Slam tennis history.
This marked her seventh Major title (and third at the Australian Open) and was the perfect and most brutal way to exact revenge on the Russian for what had happened at Wimbledon in 2004.
As if that wasn’t enough, the American would inflict an even brutal defeat on Sharapova in the Gold Medal match at the 2012 London Olympics, losing just one game as she completed the Super Slam (winning all four Majors, the Olympic singles Gold Medal and the WTA Finals) in ruthless fashion.
In the intervention, Williams returned to No.1 in the world rankings in September 2008 upon winning her third US Open title, and then again after winning her fourth Australian Open title in 2009 (in the intervention, Jelena Jankovic held top spot for 18 weeks).
Her US Open title defence ended in major controversy when she was defaulted from her semi-final match against Kim Clijsters; facing match point, the American launched a series of threatening, expletive tirades at officials, who had no choice but to act.
It wouldn’t be her only major indiscretion at Flushing Meadows, as we are about to find out later.
After a fourth Wimbledon title in 2010, Williams suffered a foot injury which came about when she stepped on some broken glass at a German restaurant in the week that followed that triumph, and she would not be seen on a tennis court again until June 2011.
She returned to defend her Wimbledon title but fell to Marion Bartoli in the fourth round, the result seeing her ranking plummet from 25th to 175th in one hit – her lowest ranking since November 1997.
Though she reached the US Open final after beating future (Victoria Azarenka), past (Ana Ivanovic) and present (Caroline Wozniacki) world No.1s en route, she fell to Samantha Stosur in straight sets, with yet another meltdown plaguing her performance.
2012 saw Williams hire Patrick Mourtaglou as coach, following a first-round exit at the French Open which came four months after a fourth-round loss to Ekaterina Makarova at the Australian Open saw her miss out on a shot at Maria Sharapova in the quarter-finals.
It proved to be a masterstroke as the American stamped her authority on the WTA Tour, returning to top spot in the rankings and won 78 matches and 11 titles, including her second and fifth French and US Open titles respectively, in 2013.
She would remain on top of the world rankings until September 2016, when she lost to Karolina Pliskova in the semi-finals of the US Open, then after taking the rest of that year off she would return with a vengeance, winning her 23rd and final Major title at the 2017 Australian Open.
What many didn’t know at the time was that Serena was two months pregnant with her daughter, Olympia Ohanian (who has since turned five), the American eventually spilling the beans on a social media post in April that year.
The American made an ambitious attempt to defend her title at the 2018 Australian Open, but decided her fitness wasn’t up to scratch, and so did not make her comeback until the grass court season, during which she lost to Angelique Kerber in the Wimbledon final.
Then, nearly a decade following her infamous meltdown at Flushing Meadows, Williams lost her cool during the second set of the US Open final which pitted her up against first-time finalist Naomi Osaka.
The American copped a series of code violations, including one of alleged coaching from Patrick Mouratoglou to which he admitted, and argued at umpire Carlos Ramos who docked a point, and later a game, from her.
The controversy dampened what should’ve been a moment of celebration for Osaka, for whom that was her first Major title, and Williams’ behaviour throughout the match became a major talking point in the weeks ensuing.
Two final attempts by the American to equal Margaret Court’s record of 24 Major singles titles went begging when she lost to Simona Halep and Bianca Andreescu in the finals of Wimbledon and the US Open in 2019 respectively.
Another long-term injury would sideline her for twelve months after Wimbledon last year, then after being inactive she would drop out of the rankings completely for the first time since 1997.
She would make her long-awaited comeback at the All England Club this year, but it would be a brief one as she fell to Frenchwoman Harmony Tan in three sets in the first round.
Which now brings us to the final tournament of her career – the US Open, where she would have one final attempt, one final push to draw level with Margaret Court for the most Grand Slam singles titles ever won by a man or woman.
After defeating Danka Kovinic in straight sets, and then second seed Anett Kontaveit in three, Williams’ illustrious career would finally come to a close with the tough three-set loss to Ajla Tomljanovic as already recapped at the top of the article.
She bows out of the sport having achieved a lot; despite falling short of Court’s record her haul of 23 Major singles titles is the most by anyone in the Open Era (1968-present), while she also spent 319 weeks ranked as the world’s best female player.
More importantly, despite some of the controversies she generated throughout her career (think the meltdowns at the 2009 and 2018 US Opens), she also departs tennis with the universal respect of her peers, of which there are so much to name.
Williams’ retirement leaves her sister, Venus, as the current active player with the most number of Major titles (seven); but even so, she hasn’t won one since 2008 and at age 42 it is inevitable she too will soon bow out of the sport.
As for what’s next, well, who knows?
But for now, let the dust continue to settle on what has been one of the most illustrious and celebrated careers in modern tennis history.
Thank you for everything, Serena Jameka Williams.
Career statistics
Total career titles: 73
Total Grand Slam singles titles: 23
Australian Open titles: Seven (2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2015 and 2017). Also runner-up in 2016.
French Open titles: Three (2002, 2013 and 2015). Also runner-up in 2016.
Wimbledon titles: Seven (2002, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2016). Also runner-up in 2004, 2008, 2018 and 2019.
US Open titles: Six (1999, 2002, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2014). Also runner-up in 2001, 2011, 2018 and 2019.
Best result at an Olympics: Gold Medal (London 2012)
Other significant results, milestones and achievements
* Serena Williams faced 18 different opponents in her 33 Major finals: Martina Hingis (1), Venus Williams (9), Maria Sharapova (4), Lindsay Davenport (1), Jelena Jankovic (1), Dinara Safina (1), Justine Henin (1), Vera Zvonareva (1), Samantha Stosur (1), Agnieszka Radwanska (1), Victoria Azarenka (2), Caroline Wozniacki (1), Lucie Safarova (1), Garbine Muguruza (2), Angelique Kerber (3), Naomi Osaka (1), Simona Halep (1) and Bianca Andreescu (1).
* Stosur, Osaka, Halep and Andreescu were the only players Serena failed to beat in a Major final.
* The 319 weeks Serena spent as world number one is third only to Steffi Graf (377) and Martina Navratilova (332). She tied with Graf for the most consecutive weeks at number one, with 186 (between February 2013 and September 2016).
* Serena has twice completed a non-Calendar Slam, winning four consecutive titles between the 2002 French Open and the 2003 Australian Open, and between the 2014 US Open and Wimbledon 2015.
* Serena completed six successful Grand Slam title defences: once at the Australian Open in 2009-10, twice at Wimbledon in 2002-03, 09-10 and 15-16, and three times at the US Open (2012-13-14).
* Serena went through the 2002 Grand Slam season undefeated, though she did miss the Australian Open that year due to injury.
* Despite her achievements, Serena never reached all four Major finals in the one calendar year.
* By winning the Olympic gold medal in 2012, Serena joined Graf as the only players to achieve a Super Slam (winning all four Majors, the Olympic singles gold medal and the season-ending WTA Finals).
* Serena was one of only five players to win the WTA Finals on debut; the others were Maria Sharapova (2004), Petra Kvitova (2011), Dominika Cibulkova (2016) and Ashleigh Barty (2019).
* By finishing runner-up at the 2016 French Open (lost to Muguruza), Serena completed the “dinner set” – i.e. finishing as champion and runner-up at each of the four Majors.
Other results from Day 5 of the US Open
Women’s singles
[5] Ons Jabeur (TUN) defeated [31] Shelby Rogers (USA) 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
[17] Caroline Garcia (FRA) defeated Bianca Andreescu (CAN) 6-3, 6-2.
[12] Coco Gauff (USA) defeated [20] Madison Keys (USA) 6-2, 6-3.
Men’s singles
[1] Daniil Medvedev defeated Yibing Wu (CHN) 6-4, 6-2, 6-2.
[23] Nick Kyrgios (AUS) defeated JJ Wolf (USA) 6-4, 6-2, 6-3.
[12] Pablo Carreno Busta (ESP) defeated [18] Alex de Minaur (AUS) 6-1, 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5).
[13] Matteo Berrettini (ITA) defeated Andy Murray (GBR) 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (1-7), 6-3.