Sofia Kenin defeated Venus Williams 6-2, 7-6(7) in a first-round match that began at 12:13 a.m. — the latest start in US Open history — to reach the second round in New York.<\/p>\n
The two American wild cards, both Grand Slam champions, waited through Novak Djokovic\u2019s 4-hour, 36-minute five-set loss to Mariano Navone before taking the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium.<\/p>\n
US Open: Scores<\/a> | Order of Play<\/a> | Overview<\/a><\/p>\n Williams, playing in her record-extending 26th US Open main draw, was the 2000 and 2001 champion. She made a slow start, falling behind by two breaks at 3-0, and though she recovered one to close within 3-2, Kenin took the opening set 6-2.<\/p>\n Kenin, 27, broke early in the second set for a 3-1 lead and had Williams down 4-2, break point. The 46-year-old American saved it, then won three straight games to take a 5-4 lead.<\/p>\n The loss was Williams\u2019 sixth straight at the US Open since her first-round win in 2019. But with doubles alongside sister Serena Williams still to come later this week, she was not ready to look beyond the tournament.<\/p>\n “I don’t think I should have to,” Williams told a small group of reporters after the match. “My mind is fully focused on that: how I recover from this completely insane evening and get ready for the next one.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Down 6-2, 4-2, Williams mounts a comeback<\/p>\n Williams held three set points on Kenin\u2019s serve in the 10th game but could not convert. At 5-5, she saved four break points to hold for a 6-5 lead.<\/p>\n Kenin held comfortably to force a tiebreak, but the momentum appeared to have shifted in Williams\u2019 favor. She led 6-2 in the tiebreak and earned four more set points, only for Kenin to save each one before converting her first match point to seal the victory in 1 hour, 48 minutes.<\/p>\n ‘I think it was just a little bit unlucky’: Venus on missed set points<\/p>\n “I think she played well,” Williams told the media about her missed chances in the second set. “I hit even a really nice serve. She hit a winner. I had some chances on her serve. She had a great second serve. Maybe I had a loose point here or there, but I don’t think that I just gave it away. I think it was just a little bit unlucky, and I think it’s some of the best tennis she’s played lately for sure.<\/p>\n “I think I had a lot of great moments today, for sure. As the match progressed, I just kept pushing myself to try to find my best tennis and to find my rhythm. It’s not easy to do in the first round. It’s not easy to do it at 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. in the morning to try to find your rhythm and play your best, but I tried my best.”<\/p>\n Kenin finished with 28 winners to 21 unforced errors, while Williams hit 13 winners and committed 24 unforced errors. It was only Kenin\u2019s sixth WTA main-draw win of 2026, and she improved to 21-13 in Grand Slam main draws.<\/p>\n Pegula awaits Kenin in second round<\/p>\n Kenin will look to win back-to-back matches at a tournament for the first time this season when she faces fellow American and No. 3 seed Jessica Pegula, who defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse 6-3, 6-2 in Sunday\u2019s day session.<\/p>\n Pegula and Kenin have met seven times, most recently in Charleston last year, with Pegula holding a 4-2 lead. Their most recent hard-court meeting came in the second round of the 2024 US Open, where Pegula won in straight sets en route to the final.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sofia Kenin defeated Venus Williams 6-2, 7-6(7) in a first-round match that began at 12:13 a.m. — the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":755680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,1602,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-755679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-text","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=755679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/755680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}