Serena Williams eliminated in Cincinnati Masters ahead of US Open

By Can Erozden

ANKARA (AA) - Serena Williams, a 23-time grand slam singles champion who said she is "evolving away from tennis" earlier this month, was eliminated in the 2022 Western & Southern Open (Cincinnati Masters), a WTA 1000 event in Ohio on Tuesday.

In the opening round of Cincinnati Masters, British player Emma Raducanu, 19, the defending US Open champion, beat her 40-year-old US opponent Williams with the sets of 6-4, 6-0. The match lasted for an hour and five minutes.

Raducanu advanced to the round of 32, where she will face Victoria Azarenka from Belarus.

"I think we all need to just honor Serena and her amazing career. I'm so grateful for the experience, being able to play her and for our careers to have crossed over, and everything she has achieved is so inspirational," Raducanu said after the win.

"It was a true honor to share the court with her," the British athlete added.

Last week, Williams hinted at retirement from the game after this year's US Open.

"I have never liked the word retirement. It doesn’t feel like a modern word to me. I’ve been thinking of this as a transition, but I want to be sensitive about how I use that word, which means something very specific and important to a community of people," Williams earlier told Vogue magazine.

"Maybe the best word to describe what I’m up to is evolution. I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me."

The 2022 US Open, the fourth and the final Grand Slam of the year, will start on Aug. 29 in New York.

Williams, who ranked 402nd in the globe, secured 23 Grand Slam titles in women's singles, including six US Open championships, the last in 2014.