Serena Williams recently gave birth to her second child so she will not be at Flushing Meadows, but this year’s tournament features several players who left the tour for a significant amount of time and now are back. File
| Photo Credit: AP
Comebacks are nothing new in tennis. There’s quite a history of that sort of thing, including by stars such as Martina Navratilova, John McEnroe, Martina Hingis, Bjorn Borg, Kim Clijsters and Andy Murray.
Perhaps that’s why so many fans of Serena Williams hold out hope she’ll return after playing her last match a year ago at the U.S. Open.
Williams recently gave birth to her second child so she will not be at Flushing Meadows, but this year’s tournament features several players who left the tour for a significant amount of time and now are back. The Day 1 schedule included Ajla Tomljanovic — who beat Williams in the 23-time Grand Slam champion’s farewell contest last September but has been sidelined by injury since November — and 2021 Australian Open finalist Jennifer Brady (injured) in the afternoon. Then 2016 Wimbledon runner-up Milos Raonic (injured) and 2018 Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki (retirement) were scheduled to appear at Louis Armstrong Stadium on Monday night.
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“I feel like people just don’t know what to do with their lives,” 2020 U.S. Open semifinalist Brady said with a hearty laugh during an interview with AP.
“Maybe they see prize money going up and think they can get back to where they were.”
The 28-year-old from Pennsylvania played her first WTA tour match since 2021 this month after being sidelined because of a fracture in her right knee and torn tissue in her left foot.
“Because of where I left off — semifinals of a Grand Slam; final of a Grand Slam — there’s expectations and goals,” she said.
“But I don’t want to really put pressure on myself to get back there right away.”
Tuesday will welcome others who were absent for a while, including Barbora Strycova (retirement) and three-time major semifinalist Elina Svitolina (pregnancy).
“It’s very alluring and attractive to think, What would it be like to play again?'” said two-time Slam runner-up Kevin Anderson, a 37-year-old from South Africa who recently ended his retirement after nearly 1 1/2 years away but did not make it out of qualifying in New York.
“Some people find real meaning in something they’re passionate about…
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