Serena Williams began her latest attempt to win a 24th Grand Slam singles trophy by beating Kristie Ahn in the first round at the U.S. Open.

The two Americans split the first 10 games before Williams pulled away to win 7-5, 6-3. The victory was her 102nd at the tournament, breaking the tie she held with Chris Evert for the most by a woman in the Open era. Williams hit 13 aces and lost only six points on her first serve.

Williams, who turns 39 this month, has won the tournament six times and has been runner-up each of the past two years. She’s seeded No. 3 and hoping to tie Margaret Court’s record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles.

Venus Williams, however, did not fare as well with a 6-3, 7-5 loss to No. 20 Karolina Muchova. Williams had been 21-0 previously in first-round matches.

It was small consolation to Williams that by appearing in the tournament for the 22nd time, she broke the women’s record in the Open era. She had been tied with Martina Navratilova. The 40-year-old Williams was the oldest player in the draw. She fell to 1-7 this year.

ANDY MURRAY saved a match point and put together his 10th career comeback from two sets down to win his first Grand Slam contest in nearly 20 months.

The 2012 U.S. Open champion, still working his way back from a pair of operations on his right hip, overcame 13 double-faults and a big deficit to beat Yoshihito Nishioka 4-6, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4), 6-4 in 4 hours, 39 minutes.

Murray is a former No. 1-ranked player whose resume also includes two Wimbledon championships and two Olympic singles gold medals.

The 33-year-old had hip surgery in January 2018, then again in January 2019, shortly after a first-round loss at the Australian Open. He figured he would need to retire from tennis.

But Murray eventually returned to the tour last season. A pelvic problem — combined with the sport’s coronavirus-caused hiatus — kept him off the tour from last November until August.

Murray faced a match point Tuesday while down 6-5 in the fourth set, but he saved it with a 127 mph service winner.

Murray’s big concern after the match was whether he could get permission to use the ice bath in the Ashe locker room.

“They said it’s for emergencies. For me, this is an emergency right now. My body hurts,” said the 33-year-old Murray, who was treated for blisters on his two big toes by a trainer during a medical timeout. “That’s by far the most tennis I’ve played since 2019, really.

“The big toes on both sides are pretty beat up, but I did all right physically. I think at the beginning of the match, I was apprehensive about playing a long match because I haven’t done one for a while. Once I got two sets down, I had to start turning the afterburners on and managed to get through it.”

FORMER TOP-10 player Carla Suarez Navarro has announced that she will need six months of chemotherapy to treat Hodgkin lymphoma.

Suarez Navarro pulled out of the U.S. Open last month. In a video posted on Twitter on Tuesday, the Spaniard she was diagnosed recently.

“I’m fine and calm at the moment and willing to face whatever comes,” Suarez Navarro said.

She turns 32 on Thursday.

Suarez Navarro has been ranked as high as N. 6 and is currently No. 71. She is a seven-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist, including at the U.S. Open in 2013 and 2018.

KIM CLIJSTERS has lost playing her first Grand Slam match in eight years. The four-time major champion was beaten by Ekaterina Alexandrova 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 Tuesday night.

Clijsters won the tournament in 2005, 2009 and 2010, and retired after the 2012 Open. Now 37 and the mother of three, she embarked on a comeback this year but has lost all three of her matches and struggled with injuries. She started well against Alexandrova, but the pace of Clijsters’ serve fell off in the third set, when she appeared to be hampered by a recent abdominal injury.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV, who reached his first Grand Slam final at last year’s U.S. Open, has won his first-round match at the tournament, beating Federico Delbonis 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.

Medvedev went from villain to hero during last year’s tournament. He was fined four times and booed by fans, but won their support in the five-set final with comeback that fell short against Rafael Nadal. He took the court Tuesday night to neither cheers nor jeers because fans aren’t allowed at this year’s Open.

“Same stadium, a little bit less people,” Medvedev said.

SLOANE STEPHENS won her opening match, beating Mihaela Buzarnescu of Romania 6-3, 6-3.

Stephens won the title in 2017 when she was ranked No. 83. She’s seeded 26th.

TWO SEEDED men at the U.S. Open – No. 2 Dominic Thiem and No. 32 Adrian Mannarino – have been fined because someone in their entourage violated the tournament’s COVID-19 protocols.

Mannarino was docked $2,500 for unsportsmanlike conduct, and Thiem was fined $1,500.

Mannarino has acknowledged he is part of a group of players who were in contact with Benoit Paire, the only U.S. Open entrant to test positive for the coronavirus so far. That group was placed under additional restrictions in case they might have been exposed to the virus by Paire.

The U.S. Tennis Association specified that Thiem’s entourage violated the rule requiring universal masking. There was no explanation of what exactly Mannarino’s entourage did wrong.

The only two fines for female players announced so far were $3,000 each for Paula Badosa and Arantxa Rus for getting coaching help, which is not allowed at Grand Slam tournaments.

THREE PLAYERS who competed Tuesday – Richard Gasquet, Gregoire Barrère and Ysaline Bonaventure – and one scheduled to play Wednesday – Kirsten Flipkens – are among the seven entrants placed under stricter COVID-19 protocols after Paire was taken out of the draw Sunday because of his test result and contact tracing determined there were seven players who potentially could have been exposed to COVID-19.

On Monday, three players from France acknowledged their involvement: Kristina Mladenovic, who is seeded 30th in women’s singles;  Mannarino; and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, who is entered in men’s doubles.

The AP obtained the full list, and the others are:

• Gasquet, a 34-year-old from France who is a three-time Grand Slam semifinalist and was playing Ivo Karlovic of Croatia in the first round Tuesday night;

• Barrère, a 26-year-old from France who beat Taro Daniel of Japan in four sets Tuesday to advance to a meeting against No. 10 Andrey Rublev on Thursday;

• Bonaventure, a 26-year-old from Belgium who beat No. 25 Zhang Shuai of China in three sets on Tuesday;

• Flipkens, a 34-year-old from Belgium who beat No. 32 Rebecca Peterson of Sweden on Monday and is scheduled to face Jessica Pegula of the U.S. in the second round on Wednesday. Flipkens was a Wimbledon semifinalist in 2013.

SUMIT NAGAL became the first Indian man to win a match at the U.S. Open in seven years.

The 23-year-old resident of New Delhi beat Bradley Klahn 6-1, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. Nagal came in ranked No. 124 in the world.

SAM QUERREY was knocked out of the first round of the U.S. Open by a player who missed more than two years because of a hip injury.

Andrey Kuznetsov beat Querrey 6-4, 7-5 (6), 6-2 to complete the long comeback, getting his first tour-level win since 2017. The Russian returned to play last month at a Prague Challenger event and lost his only match after a two-year, seven-month layoff because of the hip.

Kuznetsov was ranked No. 39 in 2016 before the hip problems sidetracked his career. He’s the first unranked player to win a Grand Slam match since Nicolas Kiefer at Wimbledon in 2007.

MOVING IN: Californian Ernesto Escobedo has moved into the men’s singles bracket at the U.S. Open, filling the spot that opened when Benoit Paire tested positive for the coronavirus shortly before the start of the tournament.

Spain’s Marcel Granollers was first in line to fill Paire’s spot, but he declined in order to focus on doubles. Escobedo then moved in and will face Kamil Majchrzak on Tuesday.

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