← Served with Andy Roddick
Served with Andy Roddick
QUICK SERVED: US Open Day 2 - Venus Williams Out, Fonseca Continues, & more
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Hey everyone, John Wertheim Here it is. Today's quick serve, day two from the 2025 U.S. open, brought to you by Amazon Prime. Let's timestamp this before we do anything. It is late, late on Monday, Carlo Alcaraz wins the first set on serve and the second against Riley Opelka. If we wake up tomorrow and somehow Riley Opelka has pulled Evan de Zanshelop and beaten Carlos Alcaraz at the US Open, Andy Roddick will buy everyone breakfast. Just kidding. If somehow Carlos Alcaraz does not prevail and win this match, this would be a big upset. Maybe we'll revisit in the morning, but let's work on the assumption Carlos is okay and wrap up today. If there was a theme, it was probably one of the grand doms of the Women's tour sort of players, perhaps in their final match. Let's start with Venus Williams, 45 years old. We have exhausted the inventory of adjectives and phrases of praise for this towering champion who was playing in her 24th US Open, reached the finals in 1997. I think Clinton was just beginning his second term when Venus Williams first played this event and reached the final. To give you some idea, she played tonight in a night session against Karolina Muhaba, who's reached the semifinals two years in a row for large swatch of this Match. For large chunks of the evening, it looked a lot like Venus Williams. Doing a pretty good Venus Williams impression out there, holding her serve with ease, moving quite well, giving a younger, higher ranked opponent some real fits. Say this Venus certainly earned her wild card. But beyond that, this was really a nice occasion to toast a champion. So often in sports we don't fully appreciate athletes or give them their full due until they're off stage. Not the case here. Venus surely felt the warmth and the affection the crowd and for about an hour there she really captivated everyone by staying in this match, winning the second set, faded a bit as one might expect in the third set and got a warm, warm farewell. Who knows if she will play again. Never say never, especially with Venus Williams. But if in fact this was her final match at the US Open, Great night session, plays a well regarded opponent, comports herself and quits herself quite well. I mean, if we're all being honest with ourselves, I'm not sure it would have been a great look. If a 45 year old woman is as towering a champion as Venus Williams is. If a 45 year old woman who is playing tennis essentially part time beats a player on the cusp of a top 10 seed, I'm not sure that's a great look in a way. Everybody won tonight. Venus looked terrific. Gave us a reminder of why she was the champion. She was. But the younger player, the player with a much higher ranking, Carolina Muhaba, who may even be a contender against someone who's reached the semifinals here two years running, she ended up prevailing. But a nice night. Venus wasn't the only former major champion who may have played her last match. Patrick Vatova did in fact announce this would be it. She will be appearing in the hall of Fame in about four or five years. But Petrarch Vatova lost today and then got a really nice send off. I don't think she necessarily came in with ambitions of winning. This was sort of a nice capstone for a great champion. She's had quite a textured career. A great act of courage coming back from a horrible set of circumstances, won multiple majors, got to the final of another one and there was a really poignant scene today after the match. I was in the players patio behind the entrance and there were players just literally lining up. It was like a reception at a wedding, lining up to congratulate Petra Kvitova. And there was a third woman who played her last match, that was Caroline Garcia, who the French player, former top five player, also announced that this would be it. For her. So Venus Williams we will have to wait and see. And who knows, given it would not be off brand for her to appear next. But it does look like three women played their last matches here. For every goodbye there is a hello. There was also a theme of youth today. Eva Jovic, we've talked about her. The 17 year old from Southern California looked terrific winning a first round match again, second year in a row. Next she plays Jasmine Paolini. Joao Fonseca rekindles some of the hype that may have been fading. He was terrific and won a straight set match. Tough circumstances. There may or may not have been some. There was some vomit during the match end. He beats Miramir Kacmanovic. Very nice win for Fonseca and the Brazilian fans loved it. They'll be back for round two. There was one, I would say, if not titanic, certainly sizable upset today. Madison Keyes, the winner of the previous hard court major and a former finalist here at the US Open. Of course she just had a rough time finding the court. 89 unforced errors, which looks like a typo. I mean again let's just. 24 points wins you a set in this sport. 89 unforced errors against 46 winners. And she fell in three sets to Hernada Zarazua, the Mexican veteran. This was the first time in three decades player from Mexico had a top 10 win. It was a big one. And Madison Keys afterwards I thought she was really sort of upfront and confronted the fact that yeah, she felt the nerves and they were paralyzing and she sort of had a funny line. This is one of the beauties of sports allegedly. But yeah, it was a rough day for Madison Keys and the sixth seed. And again the winner of the Australian Open. The winner of the previous hard court major out of the tournament. That was the one big upset. Otherwise pretty formful day. Jack Draper in his new Vori togs. Have we decided, is it vuorry, three syllables or vori? In any case, Jack Draper with his new Vori endorsement looked pretty good. Lost a set but ended up prevailing in four. Francis Tiafo won in straight sets, looked good. Good day for the ruse. Rusovori notwithstanding. Rude, Rublev and Holgaruna all won their matches. Other winners, Mira Andreeva looked terrific, only lost one game. Remember there were a lot of question marks about her. She'd rolled her anchor last month and she looked terrific. Winning love and one. Barbara Krajikova, a two time major champion. A straight set win over Vicky Mboko. Unfortunately it looked like Mboko may have still been feeling some of the effects of the wrist injury that she referenced with Andy and me when we interviewed her last week. Imboko, the champion in Montreal, didn't have much today, losing in straight sets. Elena Rubacano won. Paolini. It was an interesting day. If you had a ticket, you were not disappointed. Again, Carlos Alcaraz on court as we speak. Remember, this is a first round spread over three days. So we have another slate of first round matches tomorrow, the third and final day of the first round. Let's take a look at the schedule for tomorrow. Who do we have? We have both Wimbledon champions IGA Swiatek and Jannik Senner will play the day session on Arthur Ashe Stadium. Coco Gauff makes her debut this year. We will be able to see what effects some of this biomechanical training with her new coach will have had on her serve. And Alexander Zverev in action as well. Other matches Marta Kostyak, who has won a lot of matches this year, had a bit of a wrist injury. We'll see how she holds up against Katie Boulter. Alexander Bublik, one of the great French Open revelations, a bit of a disappointment at Wimbledon. We can see if he gets back to the up and down career. We can see if he gets back to some ups. He plays Marin Cilic, full slate of matches. Otherwise it's been an interesting U.S. open so far. Again, big upset today was Madison Keys going out with 89 unforced eras, but really the story of the day. Venus Williams and the grand sendoff she got. And for about an hour there, the superb play that she brought to bear at age 45. Good for her. We will have another quick serve tomorrow, probably about this time. Enjoy the tennis everyone. Again, this is John Wertheim four Serve Podcast Quick Serve brought to you by Amazon Prime. Enjoy. Day three of the 2025 U.S. open.
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