Del Potro only had three wins in 14 matches against Djokovic, who has dominated their career head-to-head meetings in the ATP tour.
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The 27-year-old, who has dropped to 141st in the world after nearly two years out with wrist problems, did not face a single break point on his serve and hammered 29 forehand winners past a helpless Djokovic.
Williams led 3-0 and had two points for a 4-0 advantage in the first set.
Olympic gold is about all that’s missing for 12-time grand-slam champion Djokovic, but the 29-year-old was nearly powerless in his first-round loss. It was a rematch of the London 2012 Games bronze medal match – which del Potro won.
“You don’t get this opportunity very often because the Olympic Games only come around once every four years”, said Andy.
The Williams sisters won the women’s doubles title at the Sydney 2000, Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Games.
The 141st ranked tennis player from Argentina went on to defeat world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in a first-round upset at the Rio Olympics on Sunday. “Amazing, fantastic match for me, my forehand worked great”.
Meanwhile, Del Potro, who found himself stuck in a malfunctioning lift earlier on Sunday, has blown the draw wide open and can look forward to a second round match with Joao Sousa of Portugal.
At 2-2 in the first-set tiebreaker, del Potro won three straight points to take control. It’s not the first (or) the last time that I’m losing a tennis match.
This comes a little more than a month after a third-round loss at Wimbledon against Sam Querrey of the United States, and could add to the sense that Djokovic is not as unbeatable as everyone was beginning to think he was when he won the French Open in June to become the first man in almost a half-century to win four consecutive major trophies.
“I felt once again I had the capability to play against the best in the world”, he said.
“We played awful and that basically showed”, she said. It was reported that Del Potro shouted for help.
One of these men will be a semifinalist in his portion of the bracket: del Potro, Spain’s 10th-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut, Japan’s Taro Daniel or Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller, who advanced to the third round Monday by eliminating fifth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-4, 6-3.
Del Potro, the 2009 US Open champion who was pushed to the brink of retirement after undergoing a series of wrist operations, downed the top seed 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/2).
But Juan Martin del Potro, or “Delpo”, as his friends called him, played like a world’s No. 1, as well.
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At least, Serena is still alive in the singles as the defending champion had the flawless start in her quest for a fifth Games gold medal overall, defeating Australia’s Daria Gavrilova 6-4, 6-2.
