Source: CNN International
Security & Justice
Mawlawi Ensures Strict Monitoring for Wanted Syrian Regime Figures at Beirut Airport
Caretaker Minister of Interior, Bassam Mawlawi, conducted an inspection tour of Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut to review the security arrangements and measures implemented by the Airport Security Apparatus ahead of the holiday season.
Thursday, December 19, 2024
Hezbollah Faces Internal Criticism Over Missing Fighters and Captured Prisoners
Hezbollah is grappling with increasing internal and external pressure as the fate of over 1,000 of its fighters remains uncertain following the recent war with Israel, Asharq al-Awsat newspaper revealed.
Thursday, December 19, 2024
Opinion
Lebanon After the Assads
The United States has important equities in Lebanon, including a desire for a generally friendly government’s economic and political stability; security cooperation; long-standing relations with the large Christian community in Lebanon and Lebanese diaspora in the United States; and ultimately peace between Israel and Lebanon within a broader regional settlement. Achieving these objectives will require navigating a tumultuous period in the country’s history following a war between Hezbollah and Israel that has devastated a large part of the country, exacerbating Lebanon’s already challenging economic conditions. But perhaps the most important dynamic will be how a likely Sunni-dominated state of uncertain composition in Syria will differ in its intentions toward Lebanon from the previous Alawite-led minoritarian Assad regime.
Thursday, December 19, 2024
Europe’s Syrian Dilemma
The news of the sudden and unexpected demise of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria has met a mixed response in Europe. The jubilation that a murderous dictator and close ally of Russia and Iran has fallen is not just good for the Syrian people but serves as a morale booster for Eastern Europeans wondering whether Russia can be defeated
Wednesday, December 18, 2024
Sports
Cristiano Ronaldo Unveils New Private Jet Worth $73 Million
Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the richest global athletes, has unveiled his upgraded private jet reportedly worth $73 million. With its top-notch design, exceptional speed and range of 7500 nautical miles, the Gulfstream G650 is among the fastest jets in the world.
Monday, December 16, 2024
Guardiola Accepts Man City May Need to Sign More Players to Cope with Schedule
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola believes he will need a bigger squad to handle soccer’s ever-expanding fixture schedule.
Saturday, December 14, 2024
Thursday 1 September 2022 12:18:56
Serena Williams Marches on in US Open Singles Play with Win over Second Seed Anett Kontaveit
Serena Williams, playing what could be the last US Open of her storied career, won her second-round singles match Wednesday evening, downing world No. 2 Anett Kontaveit 7-6 (4) 2-6 6-2 at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York.
"After I lost the second set, I thought, 'Oh, my goodness, I got to give my best effort because this could be it,'" Williams told ESPN in an on-court, post-match interview.
Williams looked better than in previous matches this year, where she was still trying to shake the rust of a long layoff.
In Kontaveit, however, Williams faced a much sterner test and was undoubtedly the underdog on paper but certainly not with the full house at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
A boisterous but behaved crowd cheered her every point.
She referred to the long layoff in her interview Wednesday but said, "I love a challenge."
Williams will next face Australia's Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round. Tomljanovic, who was playing at the same time as Williams on Wednesday, defeated Russian Evgeniya Rodina 1-6, 6-2, 7-5.
And Williams is not playing just singles; she will open doubles play with her sister Venus Williams on Thursday night.
"I need more matches," she told ESPN. "I love rising to the challenge. Yeah, I haven't played many matches, but I've been practicing really well. In my last few matches, it just wasn't coming together. I'm like, This isn't me."
Things have changed since she started playing at the Open, she said.
She began singles play Monday with a 6-3 6-3 victory over Danka Kovinić of Montenegro. It was Williams' third match since announcing in Vogue magazine she will "evolve away from tennis" after the US Open.
"I have never liked the word retirement. It doesn't feel like a modern word to me. I've been thinking of this as a transition, but I want to be sensitive about how I use that word, which means something very specific and important to a community of people," Williams said in the Vogue article published earlier this month.
"Maybe the best word to describe what I'm up to is evolution. I'm here to tell you that I'm evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me," she said.
At her post-match news conference Monday, Williams was asked if this is definitely her last tournament.
"Yeah, I've been pretty vague about it, right?" she said with a smile. "I'm going to stay vague because you never know."
The opening-round win over Kovinić was the best Williams had looked since making her comeback from injury. She has managed to win just one match since returning to the circuit in June and was unable to get close to the form that helped her win her last grand slam title in 2017.
But Kontaveit, who had said she was excited to play against Williams, encountered a player who showed no signs of wanting to hasten her retirement.
"I think she played really well," said the Estonian during the post-match news conference. "I mean, I thought I didn't play a bad match at all."
After the players split the first two sets, Williams stepped up her play for the decider, Kontaveit said.
"She really switched it on from there," she said. "There's a few points here and there where I feel like I could have done better on my serve maybe. I mean, she was returning better. She was playing the rallies better. I felt like she did everything a little bit better in the third set."
The passionate pro-Williams crowd was also a challenge, Kontveit added.
"I mean, I think they were not rooting like against me. They just wanted Serena to win so bad," the Estonian said. "So, I mean, I don't think it's a personal attack against me or anything. I mean, it's fair. I mean, she deserves this, yeah."
Williams burst on the scene by winning her first US Open in 1999
One of the greatest tennis players ever, Williams has won 23 grand slam singles titles and has won the US Open six times, most recently in 2014. Now 40 years old, Williams' career will come full circle as her final match -- in whichever round that turns out to be -- is to be played at the site of the first of her grand slam singles wins, the 1999 US Open.
Then just a teenager, Williams burst onto the scene to stun world No. 1 Martina Hingis in the final and lay the first stepping stone on her path to two decades of dominance.
After Kontaveit won her first Tour-level title in 2017 her true breakout year came in 2021 as she won four WTA tournaments to rise through the rankings.
An aggressive player with a varied game and powerful forehand, Kontaveit broke into the world's top 10 for the first time in November 2021 and has been a mainstay since.
She sits at a career-high ranking of No. 2 -- the highest ranking in history for an Estonian -- and at age 26 was looking to improve on her best showing at a grand slam, a quarterfinal appearance at the 2020 Australian Open.
Kontaveit looked impressive in her opening-round US Open win over Jaqueline Cristian of Romania, dropping just three games, and said after her win that she was "rooting" for Williams in her first-round match.
