Serena rolls back the years at US Open to beat Kontaveit

New York: Serena Williams is improbably through to the third round of the US Open after a 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-2 win over the second-seeded Anett Kontaveit on Wednesday night, extending for at least two more days what she has strongly hinted will be the final event of her storied career.

The 23-time major singles champion, who entered the tournament ranked 605th with only one match win in 450 days, won a tense opening set in a tiebreaker before Kontaveit, the world No 2 from Estonia, broke immediately to open the second then twice more to force a decider.

 Amid breathless pomp and a rollicking sellout crowd squarely in Williams’s corner, Kontaveit held her nerve time and again, fighting off the first five break points she faced and seven of nine in the first two sets. But following a trade of service breaks early in the third, Williams broke again and held on through the finish line, conjuring yet another indelible moment on the main show court of the tournament she has won six times.