Serena Williams surrenders in the second round in Toronto

Toronto (AFP) – Serena Williams fell in her first match on Wednesday since she announced to the world that she was ready to bid farewell to professional tennis.

No one knows exactly how many games Williams will play before his farewell. Currently, the 23-times Grand Slam winner has said goodbye to the Toronto Masters after losing 6-2 6-4 to Swiss Belinda Bencic.

“Obviously, there’s a lot of emotion,” Williams said, her voice cracking as she interviewed in court.

“I wish I could have played better,” he told the fans. Belinda played very well today.

The US Open preliminary round match came a day after the 40-year-old announced she had “started the countdown” to her active career, saying she wanted to have another baby and start a new business.

He didn’t say exactly what his last tournament would be, but hinted it could be at the US Open, which begins on August 29 in New York.

“It’s been 24 hours of great fun,” Williams said after the match.

“I’m so bad with goodbyes,” she said, touching her chest. “But bye-bye, Toronto!”

Three-time Canadian City champion Williams started in good fashion, with a header. She fired another one in the first match, delivering the impressive serve that helped her in many of her victories.

But due to a leg injury that kept her out of the Tour for the latter half of 2021 and the first half of 2022, she’s played only her third game in the past 12 months, and it shows.

Williams did not help against a competitor fifteen years younger than him and very talented. Bencic is ranked 12th in the world, won the gold medal for Switzerland at the Tokyo Olympics last year and reached the semi-finals at the Grand Slam.

Bencic won the final in Toronto at the age of 18 in 2015, when she eliminated Williams in the semifinals to earn the distinction of being the youngest to defeat what many consider the greatest of all time.

In the next stage, the Swiss will face the Venezuelan Spaniard Garbine Muguruza, the two-time champion, who captured the Estonian Kaya.

In other matches, 14th seed Karolina Pliskova, defending champion Camila Giorgi and world number one Iga Swiatek also sealed their way to the next round.

Meanwhile, second seed Anett Kontaveit lost to Swiss Gilles Teichmann 6-4, 6-4. Other nominees who fell there include Paula Padusa (4th place), Ons Jaber (5th place), Lila Fernandez (13th place) and Jelena Ostapenko (16th place).

Jabeur, who reached the Wimbledon final last month, left his match against Zing Kenwen in the second set with abdominal pain. Spaniard Padusa was packed and left in the middle of the match, trailing Yulia Petunttseva.

Local CoCo Gauff defeated Wimbledon champion Jelena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, 6-4, 7-6 (8) and 7-6 (3).