Before today, the sisters had only ever dropped three sets in their Olympic doubles career.
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Serena Williams (USA) and Venus Williams (USA) are seen during their match against Lucie Safarova (CZE) of Czech Republic and Barbora Strycova (CZE) of Czech Republic on Sunday, August 7, 2016. The siblings are seeded first in the division, having won the category at this year’s Wimbledon Championships. These were her fifth Olympics. On July 7, 2016, Serena was the World No. 1 and Venus No. 8. Safarova and Strycova had also never performed as doubles together before the match, and were 0-3 combined with different partners in previous Olympics. The Czech players were aiming the ball successfully to Venus while Serena was just watching in the net line.
She refused to use taking part in the ceremony as an excuse for her straight sets defeat in the singles.
The Czech pair overthrew the U.S. hegemony who won three gold medals together in London 2012, Beijing 2008 and Sydney 2000. Of Venus moving stiffly between points, and calling often for a towel. But there was plain sailing for the other women’s seeds in action, as No. 7 Madison Keys, No. 9 Carla Suarez Navarro, No. 14 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, No 15 Elina Svitolina and No. 16 Barbora Strycova all advanced to the second round.
Olympic gold is the only major prize that still eludes Djokovic, who was distraught when he spoke to the media after the match.
“It was not our best day”, said Venus who will be 40 when the next Olympics rolls around in 2020 in Tokyo. We like to play into the tournament but we played a tough team. “So we wish them the best of luck in the rest of the event, and we’ll get ready for the US Open in doubles”. World No. 25/14th-seeded Jack Sock of Kansas, arguably the U.S.’ best medal hopes in men’s singles, fell flat in the first round.
“It was what it was, ” Serena said.
But despite the encouragement of watching US Secretary of State John Kerry, she ran out of steam at the crucial moments, noisily coughing throughout the closing exchanges.
“That’s true, but we are really good friends”.
“I wouldn’t say it was devastating”.
“I think honestly I didn’t have enough rest”. We had a blast out there.
“We played bad and it showed in the results”, said Serena, who had earlier advanced to the second round of the singles competition.
The Venus and Serena team is not finished. Serena is still competing in singles in Rio.
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The plucky Australian levelled the first set 2-2 after making 34-year-old Williams scramble early as both players struggled to adapt to swirly winds on centre court. You can find him giving dudes the bizness on a basketball court near you.
