Williams will open doubles play along with her sister Venus on Wednesday.
Williams will face world No. 2 Anett Kontaveit of Estonia within the singles spherical of 64, additionally on Wednesday. It is going to be their first profession assembly.
After early struggles along with her serve Monday night, Williams took 10 of the ultimate 13 video games towards Kovinić, a 27-year-old from Montenegro who’s ranked eightieth on the earth.
After the match, throughout a ceremony celebrating her tennis profession, Williams mentioned she bought a lift from the vocal crowd of virtually 24,000 folks. “The group was loopy,” she mentioned.
Williams double-faulted twice within the first recreation however finally upped her first serve share to 66%. She gained 33 of 43 first serve factors.
A key second got here within the sixth recreation of the primary set when Kovinić appeared on the verge of a 4-2 lead. However a Williams shot that appeared lengthy and broad was neither, nipping the again of the baseline and outdoors fringe of the singles sideline. It was the primary of 11 straight factors for Williams as she coasted the remainder of the way in which.
It was Williams’ third match since asserting she is going to “evolve away from tennis.”
“I’ve by no means favored the phrase retirement. It does not really feel like a contemporary phrase to me. I have been pondering of this as a transition, however I wish to be delicate about how I take advantage of that phrase, which suggests one thing very particular and essential to a neighborhood of individuals,” Williams mentioned in a Vogue article printed earlier this month.
“Possibly one of the best phrase to explain what I am as much as is evolution. I am right here to let you know that I am evolving away from tennis, towards different issues which are essential to me,” she mentioned.
At her post-match information convention, she was requested if that is undoubtedly her final match.
“Yeah, I have been fairly obscure about it, proper?” she mentioned with a smile. “I will keep obscure since you by no means know.”
However earlier on the courtroom, Williams, 40, mentioned it was a troublesome resolution to maneuver on.
“I feel whenever you’re captivated with one thing and you like one thing a lot, it is all the time arduous to stroll away,” she mentioned. “Generally I feel it is arduous to stroll away than to not. That is been the case for me.”
When requested by Gayle King what profitable will probably be for her sooner or later, Williams pointed to her enterprise capital firm and in addition mentioned she needs to work on her religious life.
Williams’ singles win was witnessed by her husband, Alexis Ohanian, and their daughter, Olympia, with the teen sporting white beads in her hair, harking back to Williams’ look when she gained the primary of her six US Open titles as a teen in 1999.
“I stay up for waking up and simply being like, OK, I haven’t got to run to the courtroom at the moment,” Williams mentioned. “I stay up for simply being a mother. She’s such a very good woman. I simply wish to be a very good mother to her.”
Additionally on Monday, Daria Snigur of Ukraine, who gained qualifying matches to get into the match, upset No. 7 seed Simona Halep of Romania in three units 6-2, 0-6, 6-4.
“This match for Ukraine, for my household, for all followers who supported me. I wish to say thanks all,” an emotional Snigur mentioned.
It was Snigur’s first-ever Grand Slam match at this degree. She gained the Wimbledon women’ singles title in 2019.
CNN’s Jill Martin contributed to this report.
