Toronto, Aug. 11 (BUS): The first leg of Serena Williams’ farewell tour ended quickly as she fell 6-2 6-4 to Belinda Bencic in the second round of the Canadian Open on Wednesday, the day after it was announced. Her next retirement from tennis.
Williams arrived on the field to a standing ovation and had the full support of the fans throughout the 77-minute match, but she couldn’t conjure up the old magic that helped her win three titles in Canada, Reuters reported.
“24 hours has been so much fun… I’m so bad at goodbyes. But, goodbye Toronto,” emotional Williams told the audience.
“I’ve always had great times here both on and off the field. I will be returning as a visitor to the city but other than that it has been great.”
After the game, Williams was presented with an NBA and NHL team shirt in Toronto for her and her daughter, who was present, as well as a bouquet of flowers that she carried from the field while wiping away her tears.
Ahead of the match, a tribute video was played featuring comments from tennis pioneer Billie Jean King, current players like Coco Gauff and Emma Radocano as well as ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky, and Williams’ Canadian wins.
The much-anticipated match took place a day after the 23-time Grand Slam champion Williams announced in a Vogue article that she was “developing away from tennis” and planning to retire from the sport she had dominated for more than two decades. Read more
Olympic champion Bencic saved her only break point in the opening set and broke Williams twice to jump forward 5-2 but the 12th seed Swiss then needed five set points to grab the opening frame.
In the second set, Bencic got the one break she needed to move forward 4-3 when Williams double-faulted and Switzerland never looked back as they wrapped the match up on serve when Williams sent in a long goal.
“Obviously there was a lot of emotion,” Williams said of the court’s sentiment. “I love playing here, I’ve always loved playing here. I wish I could have played better but Belinda played really well today.”
Spain’s eighth seed Bencic is followed by Garbine Muguruza, who won 6-4 6-4 over Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi.
Among the others who made it to the last 16 of the tuning event on August 29-September. 11 US Open were world number one Iga Swiatek, defending champion Camila Giorgi, Coco Gauff, Simona Halep, Karolina Pliskova, Jessica Pegula and Arina Sabalenka.