Serena Williams’ farewell tour on Tuesday suffered another bump in the road with a 6-4, 6-0 opening round loss to Emma Raducanu at the Western & Southern Open, one of the last tune-up events before the final Grand Slam of the American great’s career.
Williams has just one professional tournament remaining before the US Open, where she would have one last chance to tie Margaret Court’s record of 24 Grand Slam titles.
After a sluggish start in the WTA 1000 event in Cincinnati, Ohio, Williams gave the sold-out crowd something to cheer about in the first set when she crushed back-to-back aces to cut reigning US Open champion Raducanu’s lead to 4-3.
Photo: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY
The British 19-year-old fired back an ace of her own to snag the first set and followed that up with a break of serve to open the second.
Raducanu rolled on from there, smacking an unreturnable serve on match point to end their first career meeting, setting up a clash against two-time former major winner Victoria Azarenka.
Williams waved to the crowd before walking off court and did not speak to the media later.
“I think we all just need to honor Serena and her amazing career,” Raducanu said on court.
“I’m so grateful for the experience of getting to play her and for our careers to have crossed over. Everything she has achieved is so inspirational and it was a true honor to get to share the court with her,” she said.
Williams, who turns 41 next month, was world No. 1 and had already won four major titles when Raducanu was born in November 2002. She won her last major in 2017, while pregnant with her daughter, Olympia, who was in attendance.
Earlier in the day, former world No. 1 Naomi Osaka was swept aside 6-4, 7-5 by China’s Zhang Shuai.
It was Osaka’s third tournament back from an Achilles’ tendon injury and it has been a stuttering return to action for the twice US Open champion, who also exited in the opening round in Toronto last week, retiring with lower back pain.
Osaka got her serve working, firing down 10 aces, but not much else, with the four-time Grand Slam winner piling up 29 unforced errors and converting just one of four break chances.
Zhang next meets Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova, who beat Leylah Fernandez, the losing finalist at last year’s US Open, on Monday.
In women’s doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Japanese partner Shuko Aoyama exited in the first round, after losing 6-3, 6-3 to Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur and Belarus’ Victoria Azarenka.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was