Tennis great Serena Williams kicked off her final tournament, the 2022 US Open, with a convincing win over Danka Kovinic. Cheddar News speaks with Doug Greenberg, writer at Front Office Sports about her performance, her challenges ahead, and the legacy she leaves behind when she leaves tennis. 

Closing Bell

Serena Williams Starts Final Tournament With Convincing Win

and turning to the biz of sports, this is a big one, us tennis, great Serena Williams kicking off the final tournament of her story career with a massive win over Denk Akhavan Itch yesterday, describing how her fans welcomed her back at the Arthur Ashe Stadium. Take a listen when I walked out the, the reception was really overwhelming. Um it was, it was loud and it was, it was, I could feel it in my chest and it was a really good feeling. Um It's a feeling I'll never forget. Alright, well, earlier this month, serena saying that she plans to evolve away from tennis in an article in vogue and hinted she does have plans to grow her family. So, joining me now is Doug Greenberg writer at front Office Sports. Doug great to have you on the show. How did Serena do yesterday? Well, thanks for having me Kristin, first of all. Um Yeah, I mean, you know, Serena, they gave her decently uh you know, um that she could work with in the first round, you know, from a tennis perspective, I think she looked all right. Um she did enough to beat a pretty low ranked player. Her next match tomorrow night is going to be a little bit more of a challenge. He's playing one of the top players in the world. Um so, you know, definitely something she's, she's gonna have to work through. Um you know, if she wants to move on in the tournament and finish the career on a high note, Do you think she can do it? I mean, do you think she can come out with a win? I don't wanna be that guy, but you know, it's tough. She's been playing, she hasn't been playing her best tennis in the last few months, to be perfectly honest. Um You know, she's a very very long uh sorry, very very long underdog. I think I saw one line, she was at 50 to 1. Uh It would be amazing, it would be such an unbelievable end to her career. But I think part of the reason she's retiring is that she she knows she doesn't she doesn't have much left in the tank, you know, you could see it last night, she was playing an inferior opponent, so she got away with it. But you know, we're talking about this in one of our production meetings earlier, you know, her serve wasn't 100% um she can't move as well as she used to. Um And and honestly it seems like from everything I've seen with her, she seems like she's a piece like I think win or lose. I think she's happy to be where she's at. How memorable is this tournament for serena? We talk about her long story career, the greatest of all time when it comes to female tennis, even really when we look at the tennis competition on both sides, men and women, how memorable is the U. S. Open for serena. Yeah, I mean it's always been a big one from her. I I believe it's the one where she's actually won the most of her grand slams. You know it's it's always felt like it seems like it's always been like home to her. Um You know it's she's the been the most dominant american player at the you know american grand slam uh for the last you know what two plus decades. Um And and there hasn't really been a dominant american player in that time. Um Sorry american men's player in that time. Um You know and Serena has just completely dominated the entire sport men's or women's. Um So you know I think that she, yeah the the U. S. Open really is it makes sense that this would be the last one for her um That she wants to end up here quickly. Doug have you had a chance to catch up with her recently? Anything that we should know from Serena as she heads into another match? I wish. Uh No it would be it would be great to talk to her, just kind of following along with her. Uh You know like everyone else um following along on tv last night which I gotta say was one of the craziest matches I've ever watched on tv. I've never seen anything, anything like that in tennis. Um It was so loud, it was there was just so many people there. Uh You know my my colleague, Amanda Chris Savage wrote today about um last night the USDA broke attendance records for the tournament because of her being there. So, you know, she's a competitor, though, and and everyone knows that that's what made her one of the best ever. I don't think she wants to go out with a whimper. You know. All right. I don't think so either. Doug Greenberg, writer of Front Office, Ford's Doug. Thank you.