Onut on hold as Williams gets ready for what might be her final singles encounter.
Iga Swiatek is attempting the first day, there are 63 other matches, but they have been p to win her maiden Grand Slam championship away from Roland Garros' red clay by receiving the No. 1 seed this year at the U.S. Open.
However,
Swiatek had another task on the eve of the U.S. Open: getting the nerve to
finally meet Serena Williams, a fearsome champion who made Swiatek feel like
"a kid from kindergarten simply gazing at her."
Swiatek
shared a snapshot of herself and Williams on social media on Sunday: Swiatek
tweeted, "This is the highlight of my day." "Congratulations
@serenawilliams on your incredible journey and illustrious career. I have the
utmost appreciation for all you have done for our sport.
The buildup
to this year's final Grand Slam tournament has been of that nature. At the
U.S.T.A. Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, there are several well-known
and up-and-coming players and plot lines. But for the time being, they are all
put on hold as Williams, one of the greatest athletes of all time, gets ready
to play what may be her last singles match on Monday night when she faces Danka
Kovinic, an unseeded opponent.
Zhang
Zhizhen, 25, and Wu Yibing, 22, are on Monday's schedule after practising
together on Court 8 on Sunday. A small crowd of primarily Mandarin-speaking
fans cheered them on and surrounded them for autographs and photos after the
training session ended. Until this year, no Chinese man had qualified to play
in the U.S. Open.
Americans
Elizabeth Mandlik and Brandon Holt, who are both the offspring of U.S. Open
singles champions, will play in their first Grand Slam match on Monday. Mandlik,
the daughter of Hana Mandlikova, will compete against Slovenian Tamara
Zidansek. Holt, the son of Tracy Austin, will compete against Taylor Fritz, the
top-seeded American and son of Kathy May, a former player who reached the top
10 in the women's game.
The winner
of the men's division of the 2020 U.S. Open, Dominic Thiem, will make his
tournament debut on Monday after missing the Open in 2017 due to a major wrist
injury. Pablo Carreo Busta, a deft player from Spain who recently won the
Masters 1000 competition in Canada and has previously advanced to the
semifinals of the U.S. Open, will present him with a challenging challenge.
Williams vs.
Kovinic will, however, take centre stage despite the fact that other tennis
players have been waiting for opportunities to meet and catch up with Williams.
The Polish
sensation Swiatek, age 21, said of the 40-year-old Williams, "I watch her
my whole life." Because she consistently won and reached the semifinals or
finals, she was essentially everywhere. She always appeared to be physically
stronger than any of her opponents, so I didn't always feel like I was this
kind of player who could play similar tennis. But she's going to teach you how
to exploit your position and how to kind of scare with being No. 1 mentally, for
sure. In an effort to do that. I have no idea how it's progressing.
Williams'
ability to balance her tennis profession with her extracurricular activities
and motherhood has been a "wonderful example," according to Swiatek.
I believe
it's fantastic that our sport has someone like that who paved the way and
proved to us that everything is possible, she remarked. "There are no
boundaries,"
After a
string of disappointing matches, former No. 1 and two-time U.S. Open winner
Naomi Osaka spent the most of her news conference on Friday fielding questions
about Williams.
According to Osaka's father Leonard Francois, the Osakas did use the Williamses' amazing success as a "blueprint."
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