Serena Williams loses 1st match since retirement announcement

TORONTO –

Serena Williams seemed out on the sold-out crowd at Sobeys Stadium, trying to find the fan who had simply shouted “Serena, you are the perfect!”

“Thanks. I like all of you,” mentioned Williams, with a mixture of sweat and tears round her eyes, acknowledging the greater than 12,500 spectators who watched her ultimate match in Canada.

Williams misplaced to Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic 6-2, 6-4 within the second spherical of the Nationwide Financial institution Open on Wednesday. Williams, who turns 41 this September, introduced her intention to retire on the finish of this season on Tuesday.

A video tribute to Williams performed on the stadium’s video screens earlier than she got here out for warmups. It featured phrases of thanks and congratulations from world No. 11 Coco Gauff, hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, and girls’s tennis pioneer Billie Jean King, amongst others.

Realizing that the second-round match towards the Twelfth-seeded Bencic could be Williams’s final in Canada, followers got here out in droves. Indicators dotted the stadium with messages like “Thanks, Serena!,” “Canada loves you!,” and “We are going to miss you!”

“I like enjoying right here. I’ve all the time beloved enjoying right here,” mentioned Williams on the courtroom after her loss. “I want I might have performed higher, however Belinda performed so nicely right now.”

The 23-time Grand Slam champion obtained three loud ovations earlier than the match even started: when she walked out on to the courtroom, when she met with Bencic and the chair umpire earlier than warmups, and once more when she was formally introduced.

“It is simply been so memorable,” mentioned Williams concerning the outpouring of affection after Vogue journal printed an article she wrote saying her upcoming retirement.

“Like I mentioned in my article, I am horrible at goodbyes. However goodbye, Toronto.”

Followers weren’t the one ones caught up within the second. Bencic, whose two wins over Williams of their 5 matches have each come on the Nationwide Financial institution Open, mentioned she was nonetheless intimidated by the American who many contemplate the best tennis participant of all time.

“It looks like I am starstruck each time I see her, so it is troublesome to play her,” mentioned Bencic. “It is troublesome to place that apart and simply give attention to the match.

“I do not understand how I then play, as a result of I really feel like I am paralyzed a bit of bit simply watching her.”

Williams in her basic type early on, scoring the match’s first level on an ace. Though the American gained two video games early, she couldn’t sustain with the 25-year-old Bencic.

The second set was extra even, with Bencic and Williams tied 3-3, however the Swiss participant gained back-to-back video games. Serving to remain within the match, Williams pumped her fist and yelled to the delight of the partisan crowd as Bencic’s failed return made it 5-4.

Williams hit the ball lengthy on match level, bringing an finish to the match and her time enjoying in Canada. It is anticipated that she’s going to formally finish her profession after the U.S. Open, which begins on Aug. 29.

“I believe the U.S. Open goes to be much more particular,” mentioned Bencic.

“So good luck to everybody who has to play her,” she added with amusing.

Bianca Andreescu of Mississauga, Ont., is the lone Canadian left within the girls’s singles event. She superior to the Spherical of 16 with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 win over France’s Alizé Cornet within the day’s ultimate match.

Andreescu gained the occasion in 2019 when it was final held in Toronto with a victory over Williams. The Canadian mentioned she loves the power of her hometown crowd.

“I’ve by no means performed in entrance of a crowd like this and similar went for 2019,” mentioned Andreescu. “Hopefully they’ll proceed like this (all through) the event.”

Earlier Wednesday, Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., was eradicated from the event following a 7-6 (4), 6-1 loss to Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia.

Fernandez, the thirteenth seed in Toronto, was enjoying in her first event following a two-month layoff to recuperate from a stress fracture in her proper foot that she sustained on the French Open.

She and her sister Bianca Fernandez then teamed up within the doubles event, dropping to Andreja Klepač of Slovenia and Alexa Guarachi of Chile 6-1, 6-2.

“It is a bit of exhausting right now as a result of we simply completed with two losses,” mentioned Leylah Fernandez. “I am simply glad that I lastly was again in competitors and that we not solely examined out the foot but in addition the physique. The physique feels nice.

“In fact, not on the stage that we would like it to be, however no less than we all know what we have to work.”

Haddad Maia will subsequent face world No. 1 Iga Swiatek, who cruised into the third spherical with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Australian qualifier Ajla Tomljanovic.

Swiatek elevated her hardcourt profitable streak to twenty matches with a scientific efficiency, defeating Tomljanovic in only one hour 4 minutes.

In different early outcomes, tenth seed Gauff beat Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina 6-4, 6-7 (8), 7-6 (3). Defending champion Camila Giorgi of Italy downed Belgium’s Elise Mertens 6-3, 7-5. And seventh seed Jessica Pegula downed fellow American Asia Muhammad 6-2, 7-5.

This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Aug. 10, 2022.