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No, That Wasn’t Beyoncé Cheering On Serena Williams At The US Open — It Was Laverne Cox

The US Open is always a big deal for tennis fans as the final Grand Slam tournament of the year, but this year, it’s extra special, as it is superstar Serena Williams’ final tournament before she retires at the age of 40. On Monday, she played her first match of the tournament against Danka Kovinić with a surfeit of celebrity supporters such as Anthony Anderson, Mike Tyson, Queen Latifah, and Spike Lee in attendance. One who was not, though, is Beyoncé… but that didn’t stop some commentators on television and Twitter from believing she was.

As it turned out, the reason for the confusion was actress Laverne Cox, who multiple broadcasts confused for the Renaissance singer. To be fair, Cox was — who actually previously worked with Beyoncé — wearing a mask and has been known to wear similarly-colored tresses to Queen Bey. That didn’t stop those who could tell the difference from correcting those who couldn’t in the most hilarious ways.

Although Beyoncé wasn’t in attendance in person, she was in spirit, as the US Open broadcast of the match opened with a tribute video to Serena featuring Beyoncé’s song “I Was Here.” Beyoncé also recently narrated a Gatorade ad detailing Williams’ accomplishments on and off the court. The singer previously contributed the song “Be Alive” to the biopic about Williams’ father, King Richard, performing the song from the Compton tennis courts where Williams got her start to open the 2022 Oscars.

Cox, meanwhile, enjoyed the attention, posting a compilation of the mistaken identity tweets on Instagram with the caption “not me getting mistaken for @Beyonce at the #USOpen tonight then trending on Twitter as the internet cackles over the mistaken identity. These tweets are funny as hell. Enjoy!!!”

Serena Williams plays her second match tomorrow (August 31) at 7 pm ET / 4 pm PT against Anett Kontaveit.