The hand is strong, and our rhinestones are fast – Newspaper Kommersant No. 161 (7362) of 09/02/2022

The main event of the third day of the US Open, which continues in New York, was the victory of perhaps the most outstanding tennis player of our time – 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams – won in 1/32 finals in three games over the second racket of the world Estonian Anette Kontaveit . The famous 40-year-old American, who has played only five matches this season, occupies only 605th place in the ranking of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and, it is possible, holds the last tournament in her career, for the first time in a year and a half she beat an opponent from the top ten . Last year’s champion, the leader of the men’s world classification, Daniil Medvedev, also advanced to the third round, having confidently defeated the Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech.

The environment that accompanied Serena Williams’ meeting with Anette Kontaveit on Wednesday evening was described by Daniil Medvedev a few hours after it ended. “I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced something like this. To understand how each draw ends, it was not necessary to be in the stands. If thunder rumbled in the arena, then Serena won the point. And when silence hung over the court, it means that the ball remained behind her rival. It was just amazing!” – last year’s champion shared his impressions with burning eyes after midnight, after his next game, which took place on the same court named after Arthur Ashe.

However, Anette Kontaveit had a different feeling. Having fallen under a monstrous emotional pressure, she eventually could not stand the pressure and left the post-match press conference, choking with tears and unable to finish listening to the next question. Well, the public can be cruel even to such worthy and lovely athletes as this Estonian blonde, having achieved in the second half of last year, a real breakthrough, along with his then coach Dmitry Tursunov. And if this cruelty is often dictated by only one thing – the desire to extend the show, which, according to all the laws of the genre, should last as long as possible, the fans can actually be understood.

Serena Williams’ 21st and most likely last appearance at the US Open has been a hot topic from the very beginning.

Suffice it to say that already on Monday, at her first match against Montenegrin Danka Kovinic, which ended in two games, the attendance record for the evening sessions of the US Open was set – 29,402 people. And another 557 more spectators came to the game with Kontaveit. Apparently, hitherto unprecedented figure for Grand Slam tournaments – 30 thousand at one meeting – is about to be overcome.

And Serena Williams, as it is already clear, managed to reciprocate her fans. Together with Nike, she prepared the appropriate equipment for this tournament – a spectacular black dress with rhinestones that masks the figure, and sneakers encrusted with 400 diamonds weighing approximately two carats each. Moreover, a gold badge with the inscription “queen” appeared on the exclusive laces. And the great champion pulled up her condition.

In terms of moving around the court, today’s Serena Williams, of course, bears little resemblance to the dashing 17-year-old girl who made her debut at the US Open in 1998. But even from the complete physical helplessness, often seen in her game in recent years, now there is no trace left.

Although the question of how long Serena Williams will last will remain on the agenda for exactly as long as she is destined to hold out in the tournament.

The first half of the match against Kontaveit turned out to be equal. Otherwise, there wouldn’t have been a tie-break, which Williams’ still-strong right hand ended with an ace. Innings right through, by the way, she will have a total of 11 pieces, which can be considered a good indicator with 6 double errors. True, from the general statistical summary it is impossible to understand why the match ended in this way. The loser has an even better ratio of shots through and unforced errors – “plus 5” versus “minus 2” for the winner. And in total, Williams won the most by one point in 2 hours and 27 minutes.

However, in this case, the final statistics are of no fundamental importance, since the second and third sets ended with the same score, but only one of them turned out to be decisive. And he stayed with Williams, who spent her energy wisely, practically did not run after hopeless balls, but impeccably used her chances at the end of the match. And she even managed to keep her emotions in check after the final blow from the left right through, as if saving them for the future. Serena Williams didn’t have a day off on Thursday. In the evening, she again had to return to the court of Arthur Ashe – already with her sister Venus in doubles. And on Friday, in the third round of singles, the six-time US Open champion will play for the first time with 29-year-old Australian of Croatian origin Ayla Tomlyanovic, the 46th racket of the world, who in July reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon for the second year in a row, and on Wednesday coped with the Russian with great difficulty Evgenia Rodina.

As for Daniil Medvedev, he celebrated his victory over the Frenchman Arthur Rinderkneh on Thursday night in almost complete silence. There were almost no fans left in the stands, since there was no intrigue as such in their confrontation.

Rinderknech failed to realize any of the three break points, while the Russian took someone else’s serve five times. Now, the next passable opponent for the leader of the world classification is Wu Yibin, the first Chinese to win at least one match in the men’s singles draws of the US Open.

Meanwhile, the number of dangerous potential opponents of Medvedev continues to decline. The eighth racket of the world, Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, who theoretically faced him in the quarterfinals, unexpectedly lost in three sets to the growing strength of Briton Jack Draper, who now will play with Karen Khachanov. However, the Australian Nick Kirios, threatening the Russian very soon, in the 1/8 finals, is still in the ranks. After the victory over the Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi, he will meet with the American Jeffrey John Wolfe, who demonstrates high-quality aggressive tennis.

Evgeny Fedyakov