Venus and Serena Williams have lost their women’s doubles match on Sunday (August 7) during the 2016 Rio Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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It’s been a tough weekend for Venus, as she suffered a loss of her own in a singles match against Belgian Kirsten Flipkens just one day before her doubles upset with Serena.
“We played awful”, Serena Williams said, according to ABC News, “and it showed in the results”. Olympic doubles had been Venus and Serena Williams’ personal property while winning three gold medals over the past 16 years.
“But we’re really, also, I wouldn’t say it’s devastating”. “If there is not Olympic Games here I would not be here competing”. It was a lot of fun and we’ll always remember these moments and these matches, and I think that’s what matters most.
The lengthy exchange featured terrific defense by both women and ended with Williams putting a forehand into the net.
According to the AP, Safarova and Strycova were not even meant to be playing together at the Olympics, with Strycova being a late replacement for Karolina Pliskova who withdrew from the tournament.
But first, Serena Williams had work to do against Australia’s Daria Gavrilova – and perhaps more work than the spirited crowd at the Olympic Tennis Centre expected. When the interviewer asked what the most romantic thing that a guy has ever done for her, she promptly responded, “I$3 t hasn’t happened yet”. “She had an upset stomach and she was coughing up a lot, you could see she was really struggling, ‘ said U.S. captain Mary Jo Fernandez, who faced the media in Williams” place.
Safarova is a strong doubles player, and she won two major titles in 2015 with Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the United States.
German second seed and Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber hit back from 2-5 down in the second set to defeat Mariana Duque-Marino of Colombia 6-3, 7-5. This marks the second defeat for Venus who also went down in the first round of women’s singles tennis.
Unseeded, the sisters won that first match 6-3, 6-1 over Canadians Vanessa Webb and Sonya Jeyaseelan.
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This was Serena’s second fight for the day after she won the first round of her singles fight.
