Williams will start her doubles match against sister Venus on Wednesday.
Williams will face world No. 2 Annette Kontaveit of Estonia in the Singles Round of 64, also on Wednesday. It will be the first meeting of his career.
Williams won 10 of his final 13 games against Kovinic, a 27-year-old from Montenegro who is ranked 80th in the world, after struggling to serve on Monday night.
At a ceremony celebrating her tennis career after the game, Williams said she was encouraged by the voices of an audience of about 24,000. “The crowd was crazy,” she said.
Williams double-faulted twice in the first game, but eventually increased his first-serve percentage to 66%. She scored her 33 of her points on her 43 first serves.
The key moment came in the sixth game of the first set when Kovinic closed to a 4-2 lead. But seemingly long and wide, Williams’ shot was neither, nipping behind the baseline and outside edge of the singles sideline. It was the first in a series of points.
It was Williams’ third match since announcing he was “evolving away from tennis.”
“I never liked the word retirement. It doesn’t feel like a modern word to me. We want to be sensitive about what this means to be very specific and important to our community of people,” Williams said in a Vogue article published earlier this month.
“Probably the best word to describe what I’m trying to do is evolution. I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis and towards other things that are important to me. I’m in
At the post-match press conference, she was asked if this was definitely her last competition.
“Yeah, I was pretty vague about that, wasn’t I?” she said with a smile. “You never know, so I remain vague.”
But early on the court, Williams, 40, said it was a difficult decision to move on.
“I always find it hard to walk away when you’re so passionate about something and love something so much,” she said. That’s my case.”
When asked by Gayle King what her future wins are, Williams pointed to her venture capital firm and said she wanted to work on her spiritual life.
Williams’ singles victory was witnessed by husband Alexis Ohanian and daughter Olympia, who wore white beads reminiscent of Williams when she won her first of six U.S. Open titles as a teenager in 1999. was in her hair. .
“I’m looking forward to waking up in the morning and not having to go out on the court today,” Williams said. I just want to be a good mom.”
Also on Monday, Ukrainian Dalia Snigl, who qualified for the tournament, defeated Romania’s seventh-seeded Simona Halep in three sets, 6-2, 0-6, 6-4.
“This match is for Ukraine, for my family and for all the fans who have supported me. I want to thank them all,” an emotional Snigger said.
This was Snigger’s first Grand Slam match at this level. She won the 2019 Wimbledon Women’s Singles.
CNN’s Jill Martin contributed to this report.