The Toronto crowd gave Serena Williams a standing ovation after she lost to Bencic in the National Bank Open. There is a time and a place.
When Serena Williams stepped out into the stadium for her first match since telling the world she is ready to leave professional tennis, she wore a game face.
He didn't smile when he was welcomed by a standing applause. The woman didn't wave. She drank from a bottle as she entered. People in the crowd have cameras on their phones. There were many hand-drawn signs with messages such as "Thank you'' or "Queen''.
No one knows how many more matches Williams will play before she hangs up her rackets, but the 40-year-old American exited the National Bank Open on Wednesday night with a two-set loss to the 19-year-old Swiss player.
While there were some familiar fist pumps and yells of "Come on!'' during competition, it was only afterwards that Williams really allowed her to show, her voice shaking and her eyes welling during an on-court interview.
Williams told spectators that there was a lot of emotion.
The second-round match at the hard-court tuneup for the US Open came a day after she said she wanted to have another child and pursue business interests.
She made it sound like her final event will be at the US Open, but she didn't say what it would be. At Wimbledon and the Australian Open, as well as at the French Open, Williams has won seven titles in a row, including six in a row at the US Open.
Williams said after Wednesday's match that it had been interesting.
She put her hand on her chest and said goodbye to Toronto.
Next up on her schedule is the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati next week, another event that prepares her for the last Grand Slam tournament.
Williams began the match with an ace. She showed off the superb serve that helped her to so many match victories, so many tournament titles, and so many weeks at the top of the rankings.
Sometimes, that elite ability showed up against Bencic, whether the trio of unreturnable serves to close out that opening game or a later put away volley with a shout and a tug on the brim of her white visor.
She only played for the third time in the past year because of a leg injury that kept her out of the last half of 2021. Williams is no longer the dominant force that she used to be.
When she was younger, the breaks of her serve were less frequent. The ground strokes are not quite on target. She only earned one break point in the first set and none in the second because she couldn't offer enough resistance.
Williams said that he wished he could have played better.
It didn't help Williams that she was facing an opponent 15 years her junior and quite talented, as well as a gold medal winner for Switzerland at the Tokyo Olympics last year.
It's an honor to be on the court with her, and that's why I think tonight is about her.
One homemade poster in the stands declared that Bencic was the greatest of all time after she defeated Williams in the semifinals to win the Toronto trophy.
Bencic will face Muguruza in the next round. The seeds who left the draw were Anett Kontaveit and Paula Badosa.
The Wimbledon runner-up was forced to stop in the second set against the Chinese player because of abdominal pain. Badosa retired in the middle of the match due to muscle pain.
The Canadian who was the US Open runner-up last year lost to Beatriz Haddad Maia in the first round of the tournament.
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