Serena Williams of Saginaw, Michigan is now in the U.S. Open record books all by herself. On Tuesday, Williams won her 102nd U.S. Open women’s singles match, setting the record previously held by Chris Evert of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, who had 101.
Williams defeated fellow American Kristie Ahn of Flushing Meadows, New York in straight sets, 7-5, 6-3. Williams will now play Margarita Gasparyan of Russia in the second round. Gasparyan beat reigning Olympic gold medalist Monica Puig of Puerto Rico in the first round, 6-3, 6-7, 6-0.
Even being a mother and at the age of 38, Williams is still playing tennis at a high level, and should be a contender to win the tournament. If she is successful, she will tie Margaret Court of Australia for the most women’s single grand slam tennis tournaments of all-time. Williams has 23 titles, while Court has 24.
Williams is seeded third at Flushing Meadows. However one could make the serious argument that Williams is more dangerous than the top two seeds. That is because Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic has never won a grand slam tournament before, and second seed Sofia Kenin of the United States only won her first grand slam title in February when she beat Garbine Muguruza of Spain 4-6, 6-2, 6-2. Pliskova’s best grand slam result came at the 2016 U.S. Open, where she reached the final and lost to Angelique Kerber of Germany, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
The best second round women’s match takes place on Thursday. That is when Muguruza, the two-time grand slam champion (2016 French Open and 2017 Wimbledon) and 10th seed, faces Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria, the 2010 Wimbledon semifinalist.
