NEW YORK — Serena Williams will be back under the US Open lights in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Wednesday.
Williams will play the leadoff match of the night session in the main stadium, the U.S. Tennis Association announced Tuesday.
She will face No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit of Estonia. They will be followed by defending men’s champion Daniil Medvedev against Arthur Rinderknech of France.
Williams beat Danka Kovinic on Monday night to begin what could be the final tournament of her career. That helped draw the largest crowd ever for a US Open night session, which had more than 29,000 fans.
The top seed in the women’s draw, Iga Swiatek, powered into the second round of the US Open on Tuesday with a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Jasmine Paolini 6-3, 6-0.
Swiatek is trying to become the first player since Williams in 2014 to win seven titles in a year. She is is just 5-4 since her 37-match winning streak ended earlier this year, but the two-time French Open champion got sharper as the match went on Tuesday while supported by a number of Polish fans wearing red inside Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Swiatek said she was excited to see a photo of herself pictured on an advertisement in Times Square.
“Just trying to enjoy that, because I remember times where it was pretty hard for anybody to see me or hear me,” Swiatek said. “Yeah, it just shows how much progress I have done on court, but also off court that I am in such a spot.”
No. 8-seeded American Jessica Pegula also raced through her opening match like Swiatek, needing just more than an hour before beating Viktorija Golubic 6-2, 6-2.
“She’s still No. 1 in the world and still going to compete really well and going to be tough to beat no matter what,” Pegula said of Swiatek.
Swiatek may be toughest to beat on the red clay of Roland Garros, but she’s already shown she can handle the hard courts, winning titles at Indian Wells and Miami earlier this year.
Also advancing in straight sets were No. 6 seed Aryna Sabalenka, No. 9 Garbine Muguruza and No. 21 Petra Kvitova.
No. 4 Paula Badosa got off to a rough start, but won a second-set tiebreaker en route to a three-set victory over Lesia Tsurenko. No. 22 seed Karolina Pliskova, the runner-up here in 2016, outlasted Magda Linette in a third-set tiebreaker, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (10-8), while No. 13 Belinda Bencic also advanced over Andrea Petkovic, who is headed into retirement.
Petkovic, a little more than a week before her 35th birthday, shared a hug with her opponent and soaked up a warm ovation from the fans.
The German won seven singles titles and reached as high as No. 9 in the rankings. She made her decision recently and teared up as she explained it afterward. Petkovic said she still loves the game but “it’s more the body that is not allowing me to play tennis anymore in a way that I want to play it, train the way I want to train, just play a full season really.”
American Sloane Stephens dropped the first set against Greet Minnen but rallied for a 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 win.
Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina tumbled out of the US Open in the first round Tuesday, losing 6-4, 6-4 to Clara Burel of France, who came through qualifying to earn a spot in the main draw.
Rybakina was seeded only 25th, with her victory in the most recent Grand Slam not boosting her in the rankings because no points were awarded at the tournament this year. Rybakina, who was born in Russia but represents Kazakhstan, said before this tournament she thought that was unfair, adding she didn’t even feel like a Wimbledon champion.
Jelena Ostapenko, the No. 16 seed, fell to Qinwen Zheng 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. No. 25 Elena Rybakina also lost in her first-round match.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.