For the first time, Williams leaves the Olympics without a medal.
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Svitolina, ranked 20th in the world, won the game 6-4, 6-3.
After all of 45 minutes, she was up a set and a break at 2-1 in the second. It’s also a massive chance for Svitolina, who has not had a particularly strong year on the women’s tour but suddenly finds herself with a legitimate chance to medal for her country.
Williams, who held a 4-0 record over Svitolina going into Tuesday’s tie, committed error after error.
Williams briefly rallied to break back at 3-3 but her calamitous seventh game sealed her fate. However, she did accept defeat and believed that the greater player won the match.
“It was a great opportunity”. It didn’t work out the way I wanted it to, but at least I was able to make it to Rio. “It was awesome, but it’s over now”.
She and her older sister Venus, who sat in the stands Tuesday, were knocked out in the first round of doubles – their first defeat in the Olympics – squashing their hopes of winning a fourth successive title.
The sisters, who won the women’s doubles title in 2000, 2008 and 2012, were stunned in the first round by the Czech pairing of Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova. Now, Serena has been eliminated from Rio competition entirely.
It was the latest in a series of odd losses that make up Williams’ turbulent 2016 season.
The 21-year-old was born in Odessa, and was introduced to tennis at a young age by her family, according to her Women’s Tennis Association bio. While that is a far better achievement than most WTA players, it is well below the standard fans have grown to expect from Williams.
Serena pulled out of a tournament in Montreal two weeks prior to the Olympics with a shoulder problem and it appears that has resurfaced.
Williams is not the only top seed to succumb in Rio.
Rio tournament has lost both its number one players before the quarter finals after Novak Djokovic went out in the first round. Although she qualified for the final of this year’s French Open and Australian Open, she lost to Garbine Muguruza and Angelique Kerner, respectively, NBC Olympics reported.
“It’s an unreal feeling for me”.
However, there were no such problems for defending men’s champion Andy Murray and 2008 victor Rafael Nadal who coasted into the third round in straight sets.
The Olympics mark Nadal’s return to competition after a two-month hiatus due a wrist injured that forced him to withdraw from the French Open. Keys is scheduled to face Russia’s Daria Kasatkina in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.
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But the magnitude of her victory didn’t set in until Williams’ final shot sailed wide.
