Douglas will leave Rio with at least one gold medal, however, after the American women won the team competition in commanding fashion on Tuesday.
Advertisement
Their most recent match came at the French Open on June 1, and it ended with Williams winning 6-1, 6-1. The defending champion, who appeared to have a shoulder problem, suffered a 4-6, 3-6 defeat at the hands of Svitolina, who will next face two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova for a place in the semi-finals, Sport24 reported.
What does this mean for the Olympic tournament?
“The feeling is unreal”.
Ukraine’s Svitolina beat Williams with a score of 6-4 6-3.
I am not saying that Williams doesn’t care about the Olympics. “That was one of my goals”, said Williams, who failed to add to her tally of Olympic medals.
The Williams sisters had compiled a 15-0 record at the Olympics, and collected three gold medals for their efforts prior to Rio, but the undefeated streak came to an end against the Czech duo. “It happens sometimes with her game and her serve and she can also do four aces in a row, so you need to expect (the) unexpected”, Svitolina said.
To start with, Svitolina played extremely well. Just play the ball, don’t play against Serena Williams, who is Olympic champion and (winner of) so many other Grand Slams. “Obviously, she was not playing well today”.
There were definite worrisome signs in the match for Williams, though. What caused her to spray typically routine groundstrokes for unforced errors throughout the match?
Williams fell apart in the second set against Svitolina, including serving five double faults in a single game.
So many people expected more of her, however she delivered a mediocre performance during the game that led to her loss. While the United States won the gymnastics team event.
Where does this leave the World No. 1?
The highest remaining seed is Germany’s Angelique Kerber, who beat Serena in the Australian Open final and lost to Serena in the Wimbledon final.
Serena Williams of the US serves during the women’s third round match against Elina Svitolina of Ukraine of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Tennis events at the Olympic Tennis Centre in the Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 9, 2016.
The loss shocked the world, especially the Rio Olympics’ favorite fan, Leslie Jones, who took the elimination particularly hard. Djokovic vs Del Potro was a highly-anticipated match as soon as the draw was made, due to Del Potro’s talent.
Second seed Murray raced into the last 16, blitzing Juan Monaco of Argentina 6-3, 6-1. The top seeds in the men’s doubles, France’s Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, are also out. As mentioned above, the Williams sisters lost in the first round to the Czechs.
Advertisement
But on the men’s side the last two gold medalists, Andy Murray (2012) and Rafael Nadal (2008) advanced. Just focused on my game.
