By Janina Nuno Rios
NEW YORK, Aug 31 (Reuters) – American Sofia Kenin beat 46-year-old compatriot Venus Williams 6-2 7-6(6) in a U.S. Open first-round match that began at 12:13 a.m. on Monday, the latest start in women’s tournament history.
The match at Arthur Ashe Stadium got underway after Novak Djokovic’s five-set defeat by Mariano Navone, with a sizable contingent of fans staying on well past midnight for one more look at Williams, who was playing as a wild card in her 96th career Grand Slam main draw appearance.
“It was extremely late,” Williams told reporters. “I’ve never played a match that late before and I was happy to see that so many people stuck around for that. It was a real honour to play in front of them.”
Kenin broke serve in the opening game and never trailed in the first set, racing to a 3-0 lead as both players struggled to find their rhythm, combining for nine double faults.
Williams, cheered on by chants of “Let’s go Venus”, broke back to love to trim the deficit to 3-1 but dropped serve again as Kenin pulled away to close out the set.
Kenin reeled off three straight games to lead 3-1 in the second set and while Williams showed flashes of the form that earned her seven Grand Slam titles she struggled to string points together, with her second serve proving especially costly.
Kenin saved four break points to level at 5-5, leaving Williams screaming in frustration at handing her opponent another game with unforced errors. However, Williams still found a way to hold for 6-5 before Kenin forced a tiebreak.
Williams appeared to have the upper hand in the tiebreak but could not convert any of her seven set points, as Kenin dug in to close out the win.
“It’s not ideal,” Williams said. “I would have preferred something else definitely. It wasn’t great for either of us, so I think we both tried our best.
“I just don’t know any other sport where you have to
start that late. I definitely think there’s room for
improvement there.
“It’s not easy to do in the first round. It’s not easy to do it at 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. in the morning to try to find your rhythm and play your best, but I tried my best.”
Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion, will next face top-ranked American Jessica Pegula.
(Reporting by Janina Nuno Rios in New York, additional reporting by Suramya Kaushik in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford and Thomas Derpinghaus)
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