NEW YORK — Venus Williams' 26th trip through the US Open singles draw ended the way little else about her career has: after everyone else had gone home. Sofia Kenin closed out a 6-2, 7-6 (6) first-round win at 2:01 a.m. Monday, the latest finish for a first-round match in tournament history, sending the 46-year-old American back to the locker room and toward a doubles reunion with her sister Serena later this week.
The match did not start until 12:13 a.m., itself a record — six minutes later than the previous mark, set by Aryna Sabalenka's round-of-32 match against Ekaterina Alexandrova in 2024, according to ESPN. The delay traced back to Novak Djokovic's four-hour, 36-minute five-set loss to Mariano Navone earlier in the night, which nearly forced organizers to shift Williams and Kenin to a side court. A crowd chanting "Let's go, Venus" stayed anyway. Kenin needed just 32 minutes to close the first set, but Williams rallied from 4-2 down in the second to force a tiebreak, then failed to convert any of seven set points before Kenin served it out.
A Career Running Out of Runway
Williams entered on a wild card and leaves with her 14th consecutive singles defeat, a streak dating to a title run in Washington in July 2025. She has now lost in the first round at Flushing Meadows six years running, dating to her last main-draw win there in 2019. Her seven Grand Slam singles titles include two straight US Open crowns in 2000 and 2001 and five Wimbledon titles between 2000 and 2008 — a résumé that made Monday's late-night scramble feel, to the fans who stayed, like an occasion rather than a formality.
Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion, had entered 0-5 in previous US Open night-session matches. At 27, she is exactly half Williams' age and was candid afterward about the strangeness of playing a tennis legend under those conditions.
It's not easy to do at 1 or 2 a.m. in the morning to try to find your rhythm and play your best, but I tried my best.
— Venus Williams, postmatch news conference
Williams, asked whether the result pushed her closer to a decision about retirement, deflected. "I don't think I should have to," she said, adding that her focus was on recovering in time for doubles. Kenin, for her part, credited her opponent rather than claim the moment for herself: she called Williams' tennis "amazing" and said nerves made the finish harder than the scoreline suggested. She next faces top-seeded Jessica Pegula, who beat Elena-Gabriela Ruse 6-3, 6-2 earlier Sunday to open the tournament's record $108 million prize pool on a calmer note, per Reuters.
A Sisters' Act, Delayed Once Already
The bigger story for Williams may now be doubles. She and Serena, 44, were drawn Tuesday to open against Hao-Ching Chan and Maya Joint — the same Joint who beat Serena at Wimbledon this summer, 6-3, 7-6 (6), 6-3, in a match that also cost Serena a knee injury and forced her to withdraw from a planned Wimbledon doubles pairing with Venus. Serena, who returned to competition this year after four years away from the tour, and Venus are 27-7 together in nine prior US Open doubles appearances, with titles in 1999 and 2009. They have not played together at the tournament since a 2022 loss.
That match gives Monday's defeat a different shape than a simple exit. Rather than an open question about whether Williams will play on, it is now a scheduling matter: how she recovers from a match that did not end until well past 2 a.m., in time for a doubles draw against the player who beat her sister only months ago. Neither Williams has said whether doubles success would extend the singles comeback into next year, and neither was asked to commit to anything beyond the week.
The tournament's night-session scheduling — a structural squeeze between two marquee matches, a five-hour men's epic and a sentimental women's draw — is likely to draw its own scrutiny in the coming days, much as it has after previous record-late finishes. For now, the record itself stands: the latest start and latest first-round finish in the US Open's history, set not by two unseeded floaters but by a former Australian Open champion and a seven-time major winner who was still finding range in a tiebreak after 1 a.m. The doubles draw, and any further word from Venus Williams on her singles future, are expected before the week is out.
