Serena Williams dismissed Danka Kovinic of Montenegro 6-3, 6-3 in the first round. The six-time U.S. Open champion will face Anett Kontaveit on Wednesday.
After recovering from a hamstring injury and not playing any tournaments for a full calendar year, Williams came back at Wimbledon and lost in the first round to Harmony Tan. Her subsequent results did not offer much evidence of a deep U.S. Open run with just one win and routine losses to top-20 players Belinda Bencic and Emma Raducanu.
But Williams, dressed in a black Nike dress with sparkling diamond adornments inspired by figure skating outfits, moved and served better against Kovinic than she had in the warm-up tournaments in Cincinnati and Canada. That allowed her to survive a shaky first set and take full control in the second, building confidence against an opponent who struggled with the enormity of the moment.
Kovinic had the opportunity to take control of the opening set, and in fact momentarily believed she had secured a 4-2 lead. Instead, a mishit backhand return from Williams got a piece of both lines in Kovinic’s forehand corner to keep her alive in the game. That bit of misfortune seemed to rattle Kovinic, who subsequently double faulted twice and did not win another game in the set.
Williams made more unforced errors than winners but hit 66 percent of her first serves, making it difficult for Kovinic to get a foothold in the match.
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