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Serena Williams endured another grand slam final nightmare as 19-year-old Canadian Bianca Andreescu rose to the occasion at the US Open.
Andreescu shot out of the blocks before surviving some late nerves to win 6-3 7-5 as Williams hopes of a record-tying 24th grand slam slipped away in front of close friend Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, who watched from her player box.
The 37-year-old Williams has lost all four major finals she has reached since returning from giving birth, including to Naomi Osaka in Flushing Meadows last year.
She has failed to even win a set in those four matches and remains one behind Australian Margaret Court’s record for most Grand Slam trophies.
“She does get tight but those four women have played the matches of their lives,” tennis legend Chris Evert said in commentary for ESPN.
Andreescu became the first Canadian woman to win a Grand Slam title and the first teenager to win a major since Maria Sharapova in 2006. She has not lost a match since March and is 8-0 against top 10 opponents in a stunning rise to the top of the sport.
Champion. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)
Andreescu made her intentions clear by breaking Williams in the first game of the match.
Both players held serve comfortably in the next few games before Williams finally earned a break point in the eighth game. Andreescu responded with an ace and held to move within one game of the first set.
She only needed one more opportunity, breaking Williams – whose first serve was far from where she needed it to be – for a second time.
Williams stumbled out of the blocks again in the second set, dropping her serve immediately to fall behind 2-0.
She rallied in the third game, finally making in-roads on Andreescu’s serve, but it was a brief moment of hope as she dropped her next two service games to fall behind 5-1.
There were some understandable nerves for Andreescu as she attempted to serve out the match for the first time.
Williams fought off the first championship point she faced and broke to stay alive at 5-2.
She had the crowd on its feet after holding to make it 5-3 and Arthur Ashe was positively rocking when she broke to love to get it back on serve and then held to make it 5-5.
But Andreescu finally regained her composure to hold serve and then break again to win the match.
The Duchess of Sussex was in attendance to support Williams in today’s match.
Meghan’s New York trip is thought to be her first since her baby shower in Manhattan earlier this year.
Harry and the couple’s baby Archie remained at home in the UK. Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the trip.
MIXED DOUBLES HISTORY
Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Jamie Murray have successfully defended their US Open mixed doubles championships.
Mattek-Sands and Murray beat the top-seeded team of Hao-Ching Chan and Michael Venus 6-2 6-3.
They are the first team to defend a US Open mixed doubles title since Kevin Curren and Anne Smith in 1981 and 1982.
Murray became the first man in the Open era to win three straight mixed doubles titles in Flushing Meadows after starting the run in 2017 with Martina Hingis.
Murray won his fifth Grand Slam mixed doubles title and Mattek-Sands won her third.
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