In one final go at the U.S. Open, Serena Williams fell to Ajla Tomljanović in the third round on Friday night. Sports Illustrated’s Jon Wertheim and Chris Almeida discuss the thrilling match, and what it shows about elite players when they near the end of their careers. 

Jon Wertheim: We all know what the ultimate storybook ending was. And this wasn’t that, but a Friday night battle with three sets of high-quality tennis and staving off match points … This would have been script 1B. It wasn’t Serena winning the tournament, but it was a hell of a way to go.

Chris Almeida: We got a lot of really long games, a lot of lengthy rallies, a lot of clean, unlikely winners. In the third set, you could tell that Serena was a little bit gassed. She could tell that she was a little bit gassed. And so she started going for broke, and a lot of those shots worked out and cut through the court and won her points. That was really fun to watch. And the crowd obviously loved it.

This was a really fun one. And, partly that was because of the style of the points, and partly that was due to the runs that both players went on. Serena was ahead 5–3 in the first set! And she got ahead 4–0 to start the second! And, so we know that Tomljanovic had a reputation for getting a little bit tight in big moments. But she did not today at all. And that made the match that much more compelling.

JW: Oh, all credit to her. She’s 29 years old—so this isn’t a teenager. She has a reputation for being lovely and a talented player and someone who really has struggled to close out matches. So, for her to step into this situation and lose the second set and then find that level of tennis and even in that final game when losing it could have meant that the whole place would have broken out into absolute chaos… Yeah, this is the win of her career. This is a career-changing night for her.

CA: I don’t know what to say! It was just extremely compelling. It was nerve wracking to watch. The level was really good. Tomljanovic went on four-game runs and both of the first two sets and Serena rebounded from letting that second-set lead go to win in a tiebreak, and even in the third set where Serena only won one game, that only game was her breaking on the first game of the set. At that point I really thought she might get to the finish line. And I mean, we’ve been saying this after every match, but it still merits mention: my God, when Tomljanovic won a point you could hear a pin drop in there.

JW: But you couldn’t hear the pin drop when she faulted.

CA: Unfortunately.

JW: One of my takeaways, though, is a real sympathy for individual sport athletes. It must be so hard to know when to retire. I was at Wimbledon for the Harmony Tan match. And it was … I mean, now we can say it: It was borderline embarrassing. It looked nothing like Serena Williams.

CA: It was hard to watch.

JW: Yeah, it was hard to watch. And she didn’t really improve on that result over the summer. But then she comes out here and she beats the No. 2 player in the world. And without a whole lot of prep work, she plays an extraordinary match against someone who is 10 years younger and is a top-40 player. I wonder … no wonder she left the door open. Did you catch that? In the post-match interview, they sort of asked: is this it? And she did not categorically say Yes. This was my last match. And I totally sympathize if she can bring this level of tennis without a whole lot of rhythm or match play … I don’t know … But really you can sort of see the agony that this decision must cause athletes, especially in sports like tennis.

CA: Especially in tennis at this moment, we’re in a bit of an unusual spot. Roger Federer and Serena and even somebody like Andy Murray …they’re all getting toward the end of their careers and yet you get the sense that they’re hanging on because they love it. These tennis greats are here because they want to be. With boxers … you often feel like the greats hang on too long. With Olympians, like Michael Phelps, you’ll hear them talk about how much they hated their sport but didn’t know any other way to live.

With the tennis players who are getting older now, you get the feeling that they want to play tennis the absolute longest they can not even to chase records necessarily, but because they love doing it. And, well, if you can play matches like this, why not take a flier on a major some time down the road?

JW: This was really high-quality tennis. And on the one hand, you toast her career and on the other hand, you sort of see how this whole thing proved that she knows herself better than anyone else. And for everyone who was speculating about what her chances were to win matches or win the tournament … it was clear that she came to this tournament to win it. This was her coming for a victory lap. She wasn’t saying this is my last season as a designated hitter and I’m happy to get a gift at every National League park.

And now there’s an event to be played! As we speak, the No. 1-ranked male player and the defending champion is walking onto the court. It’s past 10 p.m.. The Williams Show, quite quite rightly, but nevertheless, completely obscured everything else going on. Now we’re going to go back to the tennis tournament.

CA: Today I had, somehow, talked myself into Serena possibly being able to win the tournament. But that was partially because the draw is now so wide open. So now it’s anybody’s game

But the main takeaway I had seeing all of this is just thinking that it could be a long, long time until we see prize-fight atmosphere at a tennis match like this … Or maybe we’ll see it next year for Roger.

JW: I don’t know! Let’s see what happens here. If in the year Serena retires, 18 year-old Coco Gauff plays in the final, we will have this poetic happening. We’ll see all the obvious symbolism and parallel storylines if Coco reaches the final. If that happens, as it very well might, we may replicate the atmosphere of the last two nights.

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