NEW YORK — The welcome and support for Venus Williams in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Tuesday afternoon were not the same as they were for her sister, Serena, a night earlier. Nor was the result.

Venus, who turned 42 in June, has not made any pronouncements about her future in tennis, unlike her younger sibling, and while she has been successful and influential, too – a seven-time Grand Slam champion; a Black woman in a predominantly white sport – the fanfare and attention are not the same.

Playing in front of thousands of empty blue seats in an arena quite silent at the start, Venus bowed out in the first round of the U.S. Open for the second consecutive appearance, losing 6-1, 7-6 (5) to Alison Van Uytvanck.

“She means so much to female tennis. Tennis, in general,” Van Uytvanck said. “She’s a legend.”

This was the 23rd trip to Flushing Meadows for Venus – who made it to the final in 1997 as a teen then won the trophy in 2000 and 2001 – and her record 91st time participating in a major tournament.

Venus had never lost in the opening round at the U.S. Open until 2020, then was absent last year. She was off the tour in singles entirely from August 2021 until less than a month ago and is now 0-4 since her return. Her ranking – which 20 years ago was No. 1 – is 1,504th this week.

“It was definitely the longest time I have been away from tennis and been without a racket in my hand. So it was a completely new experience for me, getting a racket back in my hand and trying to acclimate as quick as possible to be ready for the U.S. Open, which was not easy,” she said. “Definitely playing lots of great points, but in the end, it’s just rust. There is nothing you can do about that except for, you know, not be rusty at some point.”

It was Serena who announced to the world on Aug. 9 that she was getting ready to step away from her playing career, leaving unclear exactly when the end would be, although she hinted it could come at the U.S. Open. So her first-round match Monday fell into the category of a must-see happening, drawing a record crowd of more than 29,000 to the tournament grounds, including more than 23,000 in Ashe – and the atmosphere was uproarious and electric from start to finish of her 6-3, 6-3 victory over Danka Kovinic.

Now Serena, who won six of her 23 Grand Slam singles titles in New York, will move on to a matchup against No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit in Ashe on Wednesday night.

And she and Venus will join forces this week in doubles, teaming up for the first time anywhere since 2018.

When a reporter wanted to know whether retirement has been on Venus’ mind, she replied: “Right now, I’m just focused on the doubles.”

Neither Williams attended the other’s first-round singles match; their mother, Oracene, and sister, Isha, were in the guest box each time. On Tuesday, they saw Venus struggle from the outset, particularly with her used-to-be-feared serve and groundstrokes that were not calibrated correctly. So many into the net. So many landing long.

After many of her 25 unforced errors, Venus would fiddle with her racket strings or tug on the brim of her visor.

Ten of those miscues came on backhands, far outnumbering her two winners on that side. There were a half-dozen double-faults, just three aces. She faced 12 break points and dropped four of her 10 service games.

Just 20 minutes in, there was a 4-0 lead for Van Uytvanck, a 28-year-old from Belgium who is ranked 43rd and came into the day with a 1-8 career mark at the U.S. Open.

Venus did make a bit of a stand, breaking to open the second set and holding for 2-0. But that would be her only break of the match and soon enough, Van Uytvanck was putting away a volley winner to close out the win.

A night earlier, Serena was feted during a post-match ceremony that included a video tribute from Oprah Winfrey and a lengthy on-court interview. After this match, Venus simply slung her red equipment bag over her left shoulder, carried her racket in her right hand, and quickly walked off toward the locker room.

Van Uytvanck now meets Clara Burel, who eliminated Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina 6-4, 6-4.

Emma Raducanu’s defense of her surprising 2021 championship ended with a first-round loss to Alizé Cornet, 6-3, 6-3.

Raducanu is only the third woman to lose her opening match in New York a year after winning the title, joining 2004 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova and 2016 champion Angelique Kerber.

Top-seeded Iga Swiatek took her first step Tuesday, beating Jasmine Paolini 6-3, 6-0 in a little more than an hour. Swiatek knows it won’t be easy to regain the form that led her to 37 straight victories this year. But all it takes is seven to win another Grand Slam title.

Swiatek is just 5-4 since her winning streak that included a second French Open crown. But she looked sharp in rolling through the second set in front of red-dressed Polish fans inside Louis Armstrong Stadium.

“For sure in first set at the beginning, you know, I played a pretty solid game, but I needed to take it up to another level,” Swiatek said. “I did that at the end and in second set, so I’m pretty proud of that.”

Other straight-set winners on the second day of the tournament included No. 6 Aryna Sabalenka, No. 8 Jessica Pegula and No. 9 Garbiñe Muguruza. No. 22 seed Karolina Pliskova, the 2016 U.S. Open runner-up, needed a third-set tiebreaker to edge Magda Linette, but No. 16 Jelena Ostapenko was ousted by China’s Zheng Qinwen.

On the men’s side, second-seeded Rafael Nadal dropped his first set of the tournament, but came back strong and rallied to beat a feisty Rinky Hijikata in four sets, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3.

Carlos Alcaraz moved into the second round when his opponent was forced to stop because of injury in the third set. The No. 3 seed led Sebastian Baez 7-5, 7-5, 2-0 when the Argentine player motioned he couldn’t continue because of leg pain or cramps.

Alcaraz’s U.S. Open ended last year in a similar manner. He reached the quarterfinals at 18, the youngest man to get that far in New York in the professional era, before stopping in the second set of his loss to Felix Auger-Aliassime because of an upper right leg injury.

No. 7 Cam Norrie and 17th-seeded Grigor Dimitrov won in straight sets.

Other men who advanced included 2014 champion Marin Cilic, No. 8 Hubert Hurkacz, No. 9 Andrey Rublev, No. 11 Jannik Sinner, No. 15 Marin Cilic, No. 17 Grigor Dimitrov and No. 28 Holger Rune.

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