One destroyed racket – and one poor set – later, Serena Williams is safely into the third round of the Rio Olympics as she bids for a second consecutive singles gold medal.
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Alize Cornet is the rarest of professional tennis players: She has Serena Williams’ number. But in France’s Alize Cornet, Williams was up against an opponent who had won their last three meetings, so nothing was to be taken for granted.
According to Forbes, Williams’ athletic excellence has earned her a net worth of $150 million and edged out Maria Sharapova as the world’s highest paid female athlete in June.
Williams, having endured her first ever Olympic loss in doubles with her sister Venus Williams, looked to be in no mood for any theatrics early in the first set.
Williams also confirmed that she and sister Venus will play doubles later in the day.
“I am sad and disappointed, not only because I am unable to travel to Greece and participate in the Olympics but also because I gave my word that I would play”, she told the outlet at the time.
“Just tried to add a little bit more spin”, she explained.
Wozniacki’s participation had been in doubt as injury prevented her from fulfilling the minimum number of Davis and Fed Cup appearances required in a four-year Olympic cycle to qualify for the Games.
Williams and Cornet have played each other six times, and the duo is tied at 3-3 in their career meetings.
The duo can engage in long rallies but the American would usually come out on top with her cross-court forehand, which is a unsafe weapon on hard courts. Which is why it was rather remarkable that Cornet, who is ranked only 48th and never made it past the fourth round of a major in 42 appearances, came into Monday with a 4-3 record against Williams. Serena is in good shape as long as she doesn’t run into a mountain of unforced errors.
Serena Williams reached the second round with a comfortable 6-4, 6-2 win over Daria Gavrilova.
Cornet, known for often getting animated on court in her matches, didn’t show any of that emotion tonight. The Frenchwoman eventually built to a 5-4 lead against the World No. 1.
She raced to a 3-0 edge in the second set, and that was pretty much that.
Williams seemed to have things in control when she broke Cornet’s serve in the 11th game and had an opportunity to serve for the set.
During that troublesome stretch, Williams reacted to losing two games in a row by mangling the tool of her trade, slamming it against the back of her green-and-white sideline bench before dismissively depositing it on the ground. Cornet saved both to go to deuce but hit a double fault to bring up a third match point.
U.S. seventh seed Madison Keys came out on top in a three-hour duel against Kristina Mladenovic of France 7-5, 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (7/5).
The victor of this match will face Britain’s Heather Watson or Ukraine’s 15th seed Elina Svitolina in the third round of the Rio Olympics.
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“It will be fun for me. I was missing shots by, literally, centimeters, and I’m not really used to missing those shots”, Williams said. “I really wanted to be able to play well, because she always seems to play well”.
