FLUSHING MEADOWS — Serena Williams bowed out of professional tennis on a frenzied night in New York as Ajla Tomljanovic overcame a partizan crowd to win 7-5 6-7(4) 6-1 at the US Open.

Tickets had been changing hands for as much as £10,000 in the build-up and would have gone even higher for her fourth-round match if Williams had been able to close out either of the first two sets, both of which she served for.

The 40-year-old did take the second eventually in a tie-break, but Tomljanovic was not disheartened, even when she was broken at the start of the third.

The Australian immediately restored parity and dealt admirably with the baying crowd, who roared every point Williams won and barely applauded when she lost one.

The 23-time grand slam champion hung on and saved five match points, making it her longest ever US Open match at three hours and seven minutes, but eventually the game was up: Serena’s tennis career was officially over.

“It all started with my parents and they deserve everything. I’m just so grateful for them,” Williams said afterwards.

“And I wouldn’t be Serena if there wasn’t Venus. She’s the only reason Serena Williams ever existed.

“It’s been a fun ride. It’s been the most incredible journey I’ve ever been on in my life. To everyone who has ever said ‘Go Serena’ in your life, I’m just so grateful.”

Like most retirement parties, it was supposed to be a one-off on Monday. But on the two re-runs since, the organisers have trotted out the same two-minute montage, voiced by Queen Latifah. Once again, “the opponent” was forced to sit there and wait for it to finish before Serena entered the arena and the warm-up could begin. It seemed unfair.

Despite that, it was Williams who was caught cold, dropping her serve in the opening game, but then she kickstarted the atmosphere on Arthur Ashe Stadium by returning the favour immediately and then producing a love hold to raise the roof.

Sitting there at 1-2 on serve, without the context you might have thought it was the deciding set of a final, not the opening exchanges of a third-round match. This though was no ordinary third-round match. People don’t pay £10,000 – the asking price on the resale market for some seats in the lower ring – for many third-round matches.

And it felt as though the script for this expensive live drama was well constructed when Williams, out of nowhere really, broke to love and served for the set. The prices for her fourth-round match on Sunday were probably already going up in anticipation. Then Tomljanovic rattled off four games in a row, drawing unforced errors from the Williams forehand and then producing a couple of clean winners herself to seal the opener. Her pre-match checklist must surely have included “silence crowd”. Well, tick.

But she could quickly rub that check mark out as Serena, perhaps swinging more freely with the “nothing to lose” attitude she said had been the key to her victor over Anett Kontaveit, responded to losing four games in a row by winning four of her own. At 2-0, she produced three aces in a game to quash any ideas Tomljanovic had about breaking back again, and then added the bonus break thanks two double-faults in the Australian’s next service game. To use the parlance of Brooklyn Nets star Ben Simmons (the only celebrity on the big screen to get booed), it was a real slam dunk.

But then to borrow a term from the more popular New York Giants’ Saquon Barkley, Ajla Tomljanovic “ran it back”. In a 15-minute game at 2-5, she saved four set points and took it to nine deuces. She turned 4-0 into 5-5 and for Serena, it all started to slip away. She went to the towel more and more and screamed “come on” to herself in a begging tone that suggestion desperation. At times, she looked on the point of tears. It was if 25 years of professional tennis was finally catching up with her.

Nevertheless, she found something within herself to win the tie-break, unfurling a forehand winner at 5-4 that left Tomljanovic furious with its brilliance, and even took an early break of serve in the decider.

For a moment, it appeared the comeback would be completed but the reality is Serena Williams is not the force she was – but she still would not go down without a fight. She saved five match points in a titanic final game, as the crowd desperately tried to drag her to her victory.

All good things though must eventually come to an end. “Simply the best,” belted out of the speakers at the end. The crowd said it better, and perhaps Ajla Tomljanovic said it best. “The greatest of all-time. Period.”

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