Serena Williams went out the same way she came in: fighting like hell | Tumaini Carayol

There is no greater expression of Serena's love for the sport than how long she stayed and many times she came back. She played on till the end, the very end

As Serena Williams stood one tie-break away from her demise in the second set of the breathless, unforgettable final match of her career, a deafening wall of noise inside Arthur Ashe Stadium punctuated every minor victory she achieved. She had led 5-3 in the first set, only for her lead to crumble. When she established a 5-2 advantage in the second set, her four set points evaporated in a flash. Each time she came close she was arrested by tension, rust, nerves.

Nothing went her way, but Williams did what she has done for 27 years: she fought. She tore into forehands, her loud, piercing grunts following every shot. She desperately sprinted for every last ball, she pumped her fists and hollered at herself in encouragement. Somehow, she dragged herself over the line in the second-set tie-break, crunching a searing forehand winner off a 20-shot rally, one of her final moments of defiance.