In the latest stunning upset at the Oympic Tennis Centre, world no. 1 Serena Williams was eliminated from the women’s singles tournament in straight sets by no. 15 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine.
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Williams, a 22-time grand-slam champion, praised Svitolina, who she had beaten in their four previous meetings.
Murray, who won gold at the 2012 London Games and is seeded No. 2, breezed past Argentina’s Juan Monaco 6-3, 6-1.
“Unreal feeling”, Svitolina said after the biggest win of her career, adding: “It’s so special to beat her here”. Svitolina’s next match will be against the Cezch Republic’s Petra Kvitova (11), with unseeded Monica Puig (Puerto Rico) and Laura Siegemund (Germany) squaring off on the other side of that draw.
Having lost in the first round of the doubles event with her sister Venus, Williams was looking to make amends in the women’s singles, but on Tuesday night she came unstuck in spectacular fashion.
Serena Williams has now done what every singles Olympic gold-medal victor in tennis, including her sister, has done.
“I was expecting that I could play well”.
“I was staying in the moment, I didn’t really think about it, I was trying to be focused because there can be two double faults and then one ace, so it’s tough to really think something different than the next point”.
The 200-meter butterfly is what Phelps does best, but he mistimed his finish in London, allowing le Clos to edge im at the line.
Though Svitolina is ranked 20th in the world, she has only advanced beyond the round of 16 in two of the 14 tournaments she’s played so far this year.
Serena and sister Venus are the most successful players in Olympic tennis history with four gold medals each but Rio has been terrible for the family.
Their most recent match came at the French Open on June 1, and it ended with Williams winning 6-1, 6-1. But facing Brazilian Mariana Silva in the first round, Szogedi had to deal with a crowd shouting support for her opponent. After the fight, a tearful Szogedi said she was “gutted” and that training four years for so little time on the mat was devastating. “To beat her at the Olympics is extremely special for me”, Svitolina said. She got to break point with a big forehand that forced an errant forehand from Williams, then converted with an inside-out forehand return victor off a 97 miles per hour (157 kph) second serve.
Oddly so, too, with that five-double-fault game; she finished with eight.
But Williams did not go quietly. Her clean and jerk lift also broke her world record by 1 kilogram. She did, however, refrain from smashing it the way she had a night earlier, cracking the equipment against her sideline chair during a ragged first set.
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CORONATION TIME: Biles and her American gymnastics teammates have been head and shoulders above the competition during qualifying. Williams wiped her forehead, picked up her rackets and headed back quickly to the locker room.
