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Serena’s sendoff like no other

By Ira Kaufman

For the Mirror

Serena Williams’ epic final run at the U.S. Open captured the eyes of the world.

Sports legends typically retire with a press conference after the season stating that, upon reflection, they are moving on to other things.

There may be rumors during their last game of a potential “retirement,” but rarely do the fans know when they are truly watching the end of career.

I was at Kobe’s final, “Mamba Out” game in 2016, when he scored 60 points in the final game of the regular season and his career (the Lakers were not in the playoffs).

I thought I would never again see an atmosphere like Staples that night where the Lakers’ fan base celebrated the final points and the final shot of a legendary career.

Serena’s final run topped the Kobe moment because, unlike the Lakers’ meaningless game that night against the Utah Jazz, Serena was playing in the most prestigious tennis tournament.

If she was able to win seven matches (as she had done six previous times at the Open), she would capture her elusive 24th grand slam title and match Margaret Court’s all-time record.

Serena had not won a major since 2017 (she lost in her last four finals), had a child, played sporadically over the last two years, is 40 years old, and has not play well on hard-court tournaments this summer.

So not much was expected of her at the U.S. Open.

The tournament, expecting a quick exit, even planned a huge retirement celebration around Serena’s first match on Monday night with celebrities, fireworks and presentations.

Before the match, fans were crawling under bleachers and climbing light poles to simply watch her warm up on the practice courts.

The atmosphere was electric and as loud as I have ever heard Ashe Stadium, as an all time record of 30,000 crowded in to see Serena play what most believed would be the final match of her career.

Over the last month, Serena had been training around the clock with the grit and determination that propelled she and her sister Venus, from the streets of Compton, to the top of the tennis world.

Her hard work paid off as she played tremendous tennis — flying around the court, hitting awesome shots and serving winner after winner, easily defeating her opponent 6-3, 6-3.

In Serena’s next match on Wednesday night, she faced the No. 2 player in the world, Anett Kontaveit, and again the oddsmakers made her the underdog.

When Serena sat down on her chair after losing the second set 6-2, it looked like she was going to lose quickly in the third set to her much younger opponent.

But echoing the Lee Corso “not so fast” phrase, Serena played flawless tennis, with the crowd getting louder and louder after every point, to easily win in the third set.

For the next 48 hours, the Serena narrative totally dominated the Open. She and Venus even played the first-ever prime time doubles match at Ashe on Thursday night.

The U.S. Open draws fans from all around the world. They converse in different languages, but the one universal word was — Serena.

Now people believed she could win the championship because, in Serena’s own words, “I’m Serena!”

Friday night’s match, against 29-year-old Ajla Tomljanovic, exceeded the previous two matches in intensity.

After dropping the first set, as Serena played a second-set tiebreaker, I thought about how many points Serena has played her entire life. I’m estimating 150,000 — just in singles — and how this could be her final points. She pulled through in the tiebreaker, but Ajla rushed out to quick 5-1 lead in the third set.

The umpire’s call of “match point” sounded like “legendary career point,” and even though she was exhausted from playing a grueling three-hour match, Serena, refused to give up and saved five of those match/career points before finally losing on the sixth one.

When Serena announced her impending retirement last month, I was in Los Angeles and drove to the courts in Compton, California, where her father Richard, trained Serena and Venus until they moved to Florida.

The area around the courts is a universe away from the country clubs and tennis academies where most of the stars of today (and yesterday) learned how to play tennis.

The fact that Serena, at age 40 — with championships, awards and more money than she can spend — played last week with the same passion and love of the tennis as the 4-year-old Serena on the courts in Compton.

And that’s why she won all those championships.

Ira Kaufman, an Altoona native and Mountain Lion graduate, hosts IRA on Sports on trueoldiesfla.com on Monday night from 7-8 p.m. It is also available on Soundcloud & iTUNES, search Ira On Sports. His column appears occasionally in Voice of the Fan.

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