On the night Serena Williams returned to Arthur Ashe Stadium, scene of last year’s traumatic United States Open final, could there have been a more reassuring opponent than Maria Sharapova?

So much had changed in tennis and beyond since Williams last faced Sharapova, in January 2016.

But one thing clearly had not. Sharapova remains Williams’s most reliable tennis muse, bringing out the very best in Williams’s power game on a metronomic basis.

Their first-round match at the Open on Monday night was very much a throwback: Williams, as usual, crushed the suspense early by, as usual, timing her shots beautifully.