NEW YORK —

Serena Williams can call it "evolving" or "retiring" or whatever she wants. And she can be coy about whether or not this U.S. Open will actually mark the end of her playing days. Those 23 Grand Slam titles earned that right.

If she keeps playing like this, who knows how long this farewell will last?

No matter what happens once her trip to Flushing Meadows is over, here is what is important to know after Wednesday night: The 40-year-old Williams is still around, she's still capable of terrific tennis, she's still winning — and, like the adoring spectators whose roars filled Arthur Ashe Stadium again — she's ready for more.

Williams eliminated No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-2 in the U.S. Open's second round to ensure that she will play at least one more singles match at what she's hinted will be the last tournament of her illustrious career.

"There's still a little left in me," Williams said with a smile during her on-court interview, then acknowledged during her post-match news conference: "These moments are clearly fleeting."

After beating 80th-ranked Danka Kovinic in straight sets Monday, then collecting her 23rd victory in her past 25 matches against someone ranked Nos. 1 or 2 against Kontaveit on Wednesday, the six-time champion at Flushing Meadows will play Friday for a spot in the fourth round.

Her opponent will be Ajla Tomljanovic, a 29-year-old Australian who is ranked 46th. They've never met.

Williams hit serves at up to 119 mph, stayed with Kontaveit during lengthy exchanges of big swings from the baselines and conjured up some of her trademark brilliance when it was needed most.

After pulling out a tight first set, then faltering in the second, Williams headed to the locker room for a bathroom break before the third.

Something had to give, someone had to blink.

When they resumed, it was Williams who lifted her level and emerged as the better player.

Just as she's done so many times, on so many stages, with so much at stake.

"I'm just Serena. After I lost the second set, I thought, 'Oh, my goodness, I better give my best effort because this could be it,'" Williams said, surely echoing the thoughts of every one of the people paying any attention.

"I'm super competitive. Honestly, I'm just looking at it as a bonus. I don't have anything to prove," she said, which certainly is true. "I never get to play like this — since '98, really. Literally, I've had an 'X' on my back since '99," the year she claimed her first Grand Slam title at the U.S. Open at age 17.

Whatever rust accumulated when Williams missed about a year of action before returning to the tour in late June at Wimbledon appears to have vanished. She lost in the first round at the All England Club to a player ranked outside the top 100 and was 1-3 in 2022 entering the U.S. Open.

"Now it's kind of coming together," Williams said. "I mean, it had to come together today."

Williams also has doubles to play, too. She and her sister, Venus, have won 14 major championships as a team and will begin that event Thursday night.

Kontaveit, a 26-year-old from Estonia, is a powerful hitter in her own right, the sort that spread across women's tennis over the past two decades after a pair of siblings from Compton, California, changed the game.

"I was growing up watching (Williams) play," Kontaveit said. "She was dominating women's tennis for so long."

There's a big caveat attached to Kontaveit's ranking status: She has never won so much as one quarterfinal match at any Grand Slam tournament in 30 career appearances.

So maybe that's why, much like with Kovinic 48 hours earlier, Williams' opponent was introduced just by her name, and Kontaveit walked out to a smattering of applause. Williams, in contrast, got the full treatment: highlight video, a listing of her many accolades and raucous roars from folks who contributed to the highest U.S. Open attendance ever at a night session, 29,959, eclipsing the record established when she played Monday.

"It was her moment," Kontaveit said. "Of course this is totally about her and I was very aware of that."

When the players met at the net for the coin toss and pre-match photos, Kontaveit looked over at Williams with a smile. Williams glanced back straight-faced.

As strident a competitor as tennis, or any sport, has seen, as rightly self-confident in her abilities as an athlete, Williams was not about to think of this whole exercise as merely a celebration of her career.

She came to New York wanting to win, of course.

Wearing the same glittery crystal-encrusted top and diamond-accented sneakers — replete with solid gold shoelace tags and the word "Queen" on the right one, "Mama" on the left — that she sported Monday, Williams was ready for prime time.

The match began with Kontaveit grabbing the first five points, Williams the next five. And on they went, back and forth. Kontaveit's mistakes were cheered — even faults, drawing an admonishment for the crowd from chair umpire Alison Hughes about making noise between serves.

Early in the third set, Kontaveit hit a cross-court forehand that caught the outermost edge of a sideline. A video on the stadium screens showed just how close it was, confirming that the ball did, indeed, land in. That brought out boos from the stands. Williams raised her arm and wagged a finger, telling her backers not to cause a fuss.

If anything, Kontaveit received more acknowledgment from the player trying to defeat her than anyone else, as Williams would respond to great shots with a nod or a racket clap.

"They were not rooting against me. They just wanted Serena to win so bad," Kontaveit said, calling the treatment she received "fair" and "expected," as well as "something I never experienced before."

Williams broke for a 5-4 edge when Kontaveit pushed a backhand long, spurring yelling spectators to rise to their feet — and Williams' husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, jumped right in, too, waving his arms in her direction, a few rows in front of where Venus and Tiger Woods were two seats apart.

But with a chance to serve out that set, Williams briefly lost her way. A missed forehand. A backhand long. A backhand into the net as she went down on one knee. A double-fault made it 5-all.

Eventually they went to a tiebreaker, and at 3-3, a chant of "Let's go, Serena!" broke out, accompanied by rhythmic clapping. Soon, Williams was delivering a 101 mph service winner and a 91 mph ace to seal that set. Just like old times`.

To Kontaveit's credit, she did not fold, did not let the disappointment of dropping that set linger.

Instead, she raced to a 3-0 edge in the second over the next 15 minutes on the strength of 10 winners and zero unforced errors.

In the third, it was Williams who gained the upper hand, and it seemed every point she won elicited an enthusiastic response. After a swinging forehand volley winner put Williams a game from victory, she raised both arms, then clenched her left fist.

One game, and five minutes later, it was over — and her stay at the U.S. Open could proceed.

Asked whether she considers herself a title contender, Williams answered: "I can not think that far. I'm having fun and I'm enjoying it."

Jason Keatseangsilp’s journey to the U.S. Open is one full of twists and turns.

“I did not even think a Grand Slam was in question, but now, here we are. So, it really is a dream turned into reality,” tennis player Jason Keatseangsilp said.

We caught up with Keatseangsilp the week before he headed out to the U.S. Open.

“This is a lifetime opportunity,” he said.

He applied for the wild card spot, and days later he received a phone call.

“I got the call from the tournament director saying I got the spot,” he said.

How Keatseangsilp got to this point is its own journey. After playing competitive tennis for much of his teenage years, at 17, he was in an accident that led to a spinal cord injury.

“I was a senior in high school. I was practicing rappelling and I fell off the climbing pole. It was a 40-foot fall,” he explained.

The pain he developed months after put life on hold.

“It was like a sharp, stabbing, fiery, electrical sensation kind of pain,” Keatseangsilp said.

“When I first met him he could barely speak to me because he was constantly doubled over in pain,” Dr. Scott Falci, a neurosurgeon and the founder and director of the Falci Institute for Spinal Cord Injuries at Swedish Medical Center, said. “The spinal cord can progressively deteriorate over time.”

Dr. Falci, who specializes in surgeries on chronically injured spinal cords, was able to help Keatseangsilp with a specialized surgery.

“These processing nerve cells inside the spinal cord can go awry after a spinal cord injury. They can actually start firing spontaneously like a seizure. It's almost like epilepsy of the spinal cord,” Dr. Falci explained.

Doctors are able to record the electrical activity, see it, and destroy those areas with radiofrequency heat.

“As soon as I woke up, I knew I was almost completely pain-free,” Keatseangsilp said.

That was back in 2013. Now, Keatseangsilp is back on the court.

“Within the past year, I've played about 15 tournaments,” he said.

Next up is the U.S. Open wheelchair championships, which expanded this year.

“The 2022 year is very special for the U.S. Open because they increased the draw, the bracket size, from 8 men to 16 men,” Keatseangsilp said. “It really opens the door for more players to kind of have a tangible goal.”

“Wheelchair tennis, wheelchair golf, wheelchair rugby, basketball,” Dane Stair, an adaptive rehab specialist at NeuAbility, said. “There's more and more of it being broadcast nowadays because accessibility is being put more to the forefront of thought.”

Stair is an adaptive rehab specialist at NeuAbility, a rehabilitative wellness center and gym. He works with those who have spinal cord injuries and advocates for more exposure and education in this realm at the university level.

“Finding adaptive sports, adaptive gyms, adaptive anything that takes a group of individuals who have been disabled, brings them together and helps them focus on a formal goal, hopefully, sports, works great for everybody,” Stair said. “As the individual is trying to learn how to live again they have to find different ways to solidify their identity down.”

Keatseangsilp hopes his story and how he found his passion for tennis again after his accident will help inspire others as well.

“[Dr. Falci’s] surgery changed my entire life,” Keatseangsilp said. ”Once people know about wheelchair tennis and they see it in action they get excited to watch.”

A game from the end of his bid for what would have been the first calendar-year Grand Slam in men's tennis since 1969, Novak Djokovic covered his face with a towel, hiding his tears during a changeover. For 27 Grand Slam matches in 2021, on hard courts, clay courts and grass, Djokovic could not be deterred, could not be beaten. Needing one more victory, in the U.S. Open final Sunday against Daniil Medvedev, to complete a season sweep of major titles and to claim the record 21st of his career, Djokovic could not come through.Outplayed by someone using a similar style to his own, Djokovic came up just short of those two historic milestones, losing 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to first-time major champion Medvedev at Arthur Ashe Stadium.What was in Djokovic's thoughts as he sat there on the sideline, knowing full well that his quest was moments from its conclusion? "Relief. I was glad it was over, because the buildup for this tournament, and everything that mentally, emotionally, I had to deal with throughout the tournament in the last couple of weeks, was just a lot. It was a lot to handle," Djokovic said at his news conference. "I was just glad that, finally, the run is over. At the same time, I felt sadness, disappointment — and also gratitude for the crowd and for that special moment that they've created for me on the court."Until Sunday, the No. 1-ranked Djokovic had been sublime at the sport's four most important tournaments, enduring the burdens of expectations and pressure over the past seven months and, in New York, the past fortnight.He won the Australian Open in February, beating Medvedev in the final in straight sets, the French Open in June and Wimbledon in July, pulling even with Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer at 20 Grand Slam titles, the most for a man in the history of a sport that dates to the 1800s. The last man to complete a true Grand Slam by going 4 for 4 at the majors in a single season remains Rod Laver, who did it twice — in 1962 and 1969 — and was in the stands Sunday. The last woman to accomplish the feat was Steffi Graf in 1988.Instead, Djokovic joins Jack Crawford in 1933 and Lew Hoad in 1956 as men who won a year's first trio of Grand Slam tournaments and made it all the way to the U.S. Open final before losing."I do feel sorry for Novak, because I cannot imagine what he feels," said Medvedev, a 25-year-old from Russia who had been 0-2 in major finals. "Knowing that I managed to stop him, it definitely makes it sweeter, and brings me confidence for what is to come."Djokovic, a 34-year-old from Serbia, simply was far from his best on this particular day."Just energy-wise, I felt slow," said Djokovic, who could not create the kind of comeback he had in each of his previous four matches — and six others in Grand Slam action this year — when he dropped the opening set. "I know I could have, and should have, done better," he said.Djokovic made plenty of mistakes, 38 unforced errors in all. He wasn't able to convert a break chance until it was too little, too late, going just 1 for 6. He showed frustration, too, destroying his racket by pounding it three times against the court after one point, drawing boos from the crowd of 25,703 and a code violation from chair umpire Damien Dumusois.A lot of Djokovic's issues also had to do with the No. 2-ranked Medvedev, who used his 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) frame to chase down everything and respond with seemingly effortless groundstrokes — much the way Djokovic wears down foes — and delivered pinpoint serving. "He was amazing. Just congratulate him, full credit from his mentality, his approach, his game, everything," Djokovic said. "He absolutely was the better player and deserved to win, no doubt about it."Medvedev won 20 of his first 23 service points, establishing a pattern. He finished with 16 aces and 38 winners in all, 11 more than Djokovic. And Medvedev employed a strategy his coach, Gilles Cervara, described as hitting more balls down the middle of the court, rather than trying to find angles that would Djokovic to pick up balls on the run."He's so good that every match is different. He changes his tactics, he changes his approach," Medvedev said about Djokovic. "I had a clear plan, which did seem to work. Was he at his best? Maybe not today. He had a lot of pressure," Medvedev said. "I had a lot of pressure, too."Nerves, distracting noise from spectators and cramps that started in his legs got to Medvedev at the very end. He served for the match at 5-2 and was a point from winning before double-faulting twice in a row. At 5-4, he had a second match point and double-faulted again. On the next chance, though, a 129 mph service winner finally finished the job, and Medvedev toppled over to the court on his side with his tongue hanging out, which he explained afterward was inspired by a goal celebration from a soccer video game. During the trophy presentation, Medvedev addressed Djokovic, offering praise for "what you accomplished this year and throughout your career" and adding, "I never said this to anybody, but I'll say it right now: For me, you are the greatest tennis player in history." In recent years, there has been constant discussion and debate about which member of the so-called Big Three — Federer, who turned 40 last month, Nadal, 35, or Djokovic — deserves to be considered the best of the bunch and the "GOAT" ("Greatest of All Time").Even with Sunday's setback, Djokovic has accumulated statistics that help people make the case for him. He is the only one of that dominant trio to have won four majors in a row across two seasons, in 2015-16. He is the only one with at least two titles at each major tournament. He is the only player who has won each of the next-tier Masters 1000 events at least twice, too. He has spent more weeks than anyone at No. 1 since the ATP computerized rankings began in 1973, surpassing Federer for that accolade in March. And he holds the edge in head-to-head matchups against both of his long-time rivals. After a five-set win over Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Alexander Zverev on Friday night, Djokovic looked ahead to what awaited in the final and declared, "I'm going to put my heart and my soul and my body and my head into that one. I'm going to treat the next match like it is the last match of my career."But Medvedev, who lost only one set in the entire tournament, never allowed Djokovic to get into this match.From the start, Djokovic was not quite himself. After flubbing three break points early in the second set, the last with a sliced backhand in the net, he pounded his racket against his thigh — one, two, three, four times, perhaps as disappointed in his footwork as his form.Thousands in the audience tried to boost him by chanting his nickname, "No-le! No-le! No-le!" After some of Medvedev's faults, some in the stands would applaud, considered poor form in tennis and repeatedly admonished with a "please" from Dumusois.By the end, the deficit grew too large for Djokovic, the climb too steep."I was below par with everything, to be honest," he said. "So just one of these days where, unfortunately, wasn't meant to be."

NEW YORK —

Related video above: US Open will offer players mental health services

Naomi Osaka is back in Grand Slam action after a mental health break. Back to playing quite well, too.

After a tight start to her first-round U.S. Open match Monday night, the reigning champion grabbed eight of the last nine games and put together a 6-4, 6-1 victory over 87th-ranked Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic.

Helped by a serve that reached 120 mph, Osaka saved all eight break points she faced and accumulated a 34-10 edge in total winners. She hadn't played at one of her sport's four major tournaments since May 30 at the French Open.

That day, Osaka skipped her mandatory news conference after her first-round victory in Paris, drawing a $15,000 fine and a warning from the heads of the Slams that she could face a suspension. She responded by pulling out of Roland Garros, explaining that she feels anxiety when speaking to the media and has dealt with depression for years. Osaka then sat out Wimbledon, too.

A year ago, when she won the title at Flushing Meadows for the second time, there weren't any spectators allowed, because of the coronavirus pandemic. But they returned Monday in full force, and Osaka heard plenty of support from the thousands in Arthur Ashe Stadium.

"It feels kind of crazy to play in front of everyone again. I just want to say thank you for coming out here. Last year, when we didn't have a crowd, I know it felt quite lonely for me," she said with a smile during her on-court interview. "I'm glad to see little kids in the audience — and, of course, grown-ups, too."

While dropping Bouzkova's career mark in major matches to 1-11, Osaka improved her own to 55-14, including 22-3 at the U.S. Open as she tries to become the first woman with consecutive trophies in New York since Serena Williams collected her third in a row in 2014.

Osaka beat Williams in the chaotic 2018 final in Ashe. She also has won hard-court major titles at the Australian Open in 2019 and this February.

"I've played a lot of matches on this court," Osaka told the Ashe fans. "Definitely, I feel really comfortable here."

Used to be home, actually. She was born in Japan to a Japanese mother and Haitian father, and when Osaka was 3, the family moved to Queens. They lived there until she was 8, when they went to Florida.

Last week, Osaka went to her old neighborhood to check out tennis courts there that she paid to have refurbished.

"It definitely meant a lot to me ... just to revisit my old courts and see familiar faces," she said.

Her match against Bouzkova originally was scheduled to begin around 7:30 p.m., but didn't get going until after 9 p.m., on account of the preceding match between Andy Murray and Stefanos Tsitsipas lasting nearly five hours.

When that men's matchup ended, thousands of fans with night session tickets needed to wait to get into Ashe while those holding day session seats were cleared out and the arena was cleaned.

As play began, Osaka was a tad tentative, allowing Bouzkova to keep things close for a while. But from 4-all in the first set, everything began to go Osaka's way.

She had fewer break chances overall — just six — but managed to convert half of them, and her serve and quick-strike forehand did the rest.

Next up for Osaka is a match against 145th-ranked Olga Danilovic.