Serena Williams Loses In Emotional Toronto Send-Off, Looks Ahead To Cincinnati, U.S. Open

It was an emotional send-off for Serena Williams in what turned out to be her final match in Canada on Wednesday night.

Fans at the National Bank Open in Toronto, 12,500 of them according to The New York Times, greeted her with a standing ovation and arrived at her match with Belinda Bencic with signs that read “Thank you Serena” and “Welcome to the Williams Show.”

Bencic, the 2020 Olympic gold medalist from Switzerland, then proceeded to dominate the 40-year-old, 23-time Grand Slam champion, 6-2, 6-4, in what was Serena’s first match since announcing Tuesday that she planned to retire following the upcoming U.S. Open.

Bencic kept the return pressure on Williams from the first game. The Swiss won the toss, elected to receive, and proceeded to earn two break points in the opening game. Williams saved them with clutch serving, but Bencic would go on to break Williams twice in the opening set, sealing it after 41 minutes.

Serena found better success in the second set behind her serve, but Bencic finally got the break in the 3-3 game when Williams hit a double-fault on break point. Bencic closed out the win after 1 hour and 17 minutes. Bencic finished with 25 winners to 13 unforced errors, while Williams hit 13 winners to 18 unforced errors.

“It was a lot of emotions obviously,” Williams told the crowd. “I love playing here, I’ve always loved playing here. I wish I could have played better but Belinda played so well today. It’s been an interesting 24 hours.”

“As I said in the article, I’m terrible at goodbyes. But, goodbye Toronto.”

Williams will head to Cincinnati next week for the Western & Southern Open, which she won in 2014 and ‘15 and where they are already promoting it as the last chance for Cincinnati fans to see Serena in action.

Williams is expected to wind down her career at the U.S. Open in New York beginning Aug. 29. Officials announced this week that 13,000 tickets were sold for the last major of the year — and of Serena’s career — in the aftermath of her retirement announcement.

Williams has 106 match wins at the Open and has made 10 finals appearances — both Open-Era records. She is tied with Chrissie Evert with six titles in New York and remains at 23 Grand Slam singles titles, one shy of Margaret Court’s all-time mark of 24.

Her last major came at the 2017 Australian Open and she has reached four major finals since then — including two in New York in 2018 and ‘19 — coming up short in all four.

The WTA Tour contributed reporting.