Serena Williams hits a return to Ajla Tomljanovic during the third round of the U.S. Open on Friday in New York. Williams lost 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-1 in what is expected to be the final match of her career. John Minchillo/Associated Press

NEW YORK — Leave it to Serena Williams to not want to go quietly, to not want this match, this trip to the U.S. Open, this transcendent career of hers, to really, truly end.

Right down to what were, barring a change of heart, the final minutes of her quarter-century of excellence on the tennis court, and an unbending unwillingness to be told what wasn’t possible, Williams tried to mount one last classic comeback, earn one last vintage victory, with fans on their feet in a full Arthur Ashe Stadium, cellphone cameras at the ready.

The 23-time Grand Slam champion staved off five match points to prolong the three-hours-plus proceedings, but could not do more, and was eliminated from the U.S. Open in the third round by Ajla Tomljanovic 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-1 on Friday night in what is expected to be her final contest.

“It’s been the most incredible ride and journey I’ve ever been on in my life,” Williams said, tears streaming down her cheeks shortly after one final shot of hers landed in the net. “I’m so grateful to every single person that’s ever said, ‘Go, Serena!’ in their life.”

She turns 41 this month and recently told the world that she is ready to start “evolving” away from her playing days – she expressed distaste for the word “retirement” – and while she remained purposely vague about whether this appearance at Flushing Meadows definitely would represent her last hurrah, everyone assumed it will be.

Asked during an on-court interview whether she might reconsider walking away, Williams replied: “I don’t think so, but you never know.”

With two victories in singles this week, including over the No. 2 player in the world, Anett Kontaveit, on Wednesday, Williams took her fans on a thrill-a-minute throwback trip at the hard-court tournament that was the site of a half-dozen of her championships.

The first came in 1999 in New York, when Williams was just 17. Now she’s married and a mother; her daughter, Olympia, turned 5 on Thursday.

But even with 23,859 of her closest friends cheering raucously again on Friday, Williams faltered against Tomljanovic, a 29-year-old Australian who is ranked 46th.

Williams gave away leads in each set, including the last, in which she was up 1-0 before dropping the final six games.

Tomljanovic is unabashedly a fan of Williams, having growing up watching her play on TV.

“I’m feeling really sorry, just because I love Serena just as much as you guys do. And what she’s done for me, for the sport of tennis, is incredible,” said Tomljanovic, who has never been past the quarterfinals at any major. “This is a surreal moment for me.”

Then, drawing laughs, Tomljanovic added: “I just thought she would beat me. … She’s Serena. That’s that’s just who she is: She’s the greatest of all time. Period.”

This performance was not perfect.

On one point in the second set, Williams’ feet got tangled and she fell to the court, dropping her racket. She finished with 51 unforced errors, 21 more than Tomljanovic.

Williams let a 5-3 lead vanish in the first set. She did something similar in the second, giving away edges of 4-0 and 5-2, and requiring five set points to finally put that one in her pocket. From 4-all in the tiebreaker, meaning Williams was three points from defeat, she pounded a 117 mph ace, hit a forehand winner to cap a 20-stroke exchange, then watched Tomljanovic push a forehand long.

Momentum appeared to be on Williams’ side. But she could not pull off the sort of never-admit-defeat triumph she did so often over the years.

“Oh, my God, thank you so much. You guys were amazing today. I tried,” Williams told the audience, hands on her hips, before mentioning, among others, her parents and her older sister, Venus, a seven-time major champion.

“I wouldn’t be Serena if there wasn’t Venus. So thank you, Venus,” she said. “She’s the only reason that Serena Williams ever existed.”

Williams entered the night having won 19 times in a row in the U.S. Open’s third round of singles competition, including reaching at least the semifinals in her most recent 11 appearances in New York.

Talk about a full-circle moment: The only other third-round loss she’s ever had at Flushing Meadows (she is 42-0 in the first and second rounds) came all the way back in 1998, the year Williams made her tournament debut at age 16. She would win her first major trophy 12 months later at the U.S. Open.

Also Friday, Andy Murray’s latest Week 1 exit at a Grand Slam tournament did not discourage him. The three-time major champion still thinks he can go toe-to-toe with the best in men’s tennis — even after two hip operations, even as the years without a trip past the third round at any of the sport’s biggest events stretch on.

After bowing out at that stage of the U.S. Open with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (1), 6-3 loss across more than 3 1/2 hours against 2021 Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini, Murray chose to look on the bright side.

“I’ve got a metal hip. It’s not easy playing with that. It’s really difficult. I’m surprised I’m still able to compete with guys that are right up at the top of the game,” the 35-year-old Murray said, resting his head on his left hand. “Matches like this, I’m really proud that I have worked myself into a position where I’m able to do that. I’m really disappointed that I didn’t get over the line today. But I get reminded, like, ‘This is the first time you’ve made the third round here since 2016.’ It’s been six years. It’s been a difficult six years for me.”

Berrettini, a big hitter who reached the 2019 semifinals at Flushing Meadows, dominated in just about every statistical way at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Coco Gauff, an 18-year-old American who reached the final at the French Open in June, made it to the fourth round at the U.S. Open for the first time with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Madison Keys, the 2017 runner-up in New York and seeded 20th this year.

Gauff’s match ended a little more than an hour before Williams-Tomljanovic was due to begin.

Gauff now meets Zhang Shuai, who eliminated Rebecca Marino 6-2, 6-4.

In other action during the day session, Wimbledon finalist Ons Jabeur came back to defeat No. 31 Shelby Rogers 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 and avoid the sort of early exit by a high-seeded woman that has filled the first week of play at the year’s last major. No. 2 Anett Kontaveit (who lost to Williams), No. 3 Maria Sakkari and No. 4 Paula Badosa are all aready gone, as are 2021 champion Emma Raducanu and 2021 runner-up Leylah Fernandez; No. 1 Iga Swiatek and No. 5 Jabeur have offered a bit of the expected.

Jabeur reached the fourth round in New York for the first time after going 0-3 in the third round since 2019.

“Finally,” Jabeur said. “I know that I don’t play the best on hard courts, but it’s always amazing to see how I’m improving, how I’m pushing my limits.”

She next plays No. 18 Veronika Kudermetova, who needed just 47 minutes to overwhelm Dalma Galfi 6-2, 6-0.

In the men’s bracket, French Open runner-up Casper Ruud edged 29th-seeded Tommy Paul in five sets, while No. 27 Karen Khachanov moved on when his opponent, Jack Draper, stopped playing in the third set because of an injured hamstring.

The 13th-seeded Berrettini advanced to face Alejandro Davidovich Fokina on Sunday by hitting more aces than the unseeded Murray, 18-5, delivering far more total winners, 55-24, and accumulating 15 break points, converting five, while facing only four.

Murray’s summation: “I served pretty poorly for a large part of the match.”

He won his first Slam trophy at the U.S. Open in 2012, then added titles at Wimbledon in 2013 and 2016, becoming the first British man to triumph there since the 1930s. Murray made it to No. 1 in the rankings in 2017; that also was the last time he reached the fourth round at any major, doing so at the All England Club.

“Unfortunately, I never played him when he was No. 1, but his level seems very high right now. He’s super intelligent. He reads the game very well. … He made me sweat a lot,” Berrettini said after a match that was interrupted for about five minutes while paramedics attended to a spectator. “He still moves well. He has a lot of strength in his legs. I see him in the gym all the time.”

The first procedure on his hip came early in 2018, and the assumption by most, including Murray, was that he would need to retire. Then a second surgery, to install the metal implant, arrived in January 2019.

“Lots of people told me I wouldn’t be able to play again. And lots of people told me I’d be able to hit tennis balls but not compete professionally again. That was nonsense,” he said Friday, “and I want to see how close I can get back to the top of the game.”