She looked like it on Sunday and now, the most dominant tennis team in Olympic history is out of the Games. Lucie Šafářová and Barbora Strýcová of the Czech Republic dominated the Williams sisters from the start, winning 6-3, 6-4 in straight sets. Strycova is just a late substitute after Safarova’s original teammate withdrew. They are unseeded in Rio. The Czech players were aiming the ball successfully to Venus while Serena was just watching in the net line. “She had an upset stomach and she was coughing up a lot, you could see she was really struggling, ‘ said United States captain Mary Jo Fernandez, who faced the media in Williams” place.
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“I had a chance to come back in the third set but every time I came close to pegging her back, I missed the opportunity”, said the world No. 26. “We played awful, and it showed in the results”.
“I don’t know why”.
Williams said it felt good to progress to the second round where she will play either Frenchwoman Alize Cornet or Sweden’s Johanna Larsson.
Her boyfriend, on the other hand, was much more generous about their devastating loss.
World number one Novak Djokovic was dumped out of the Olympics in the first round, losing for the second successive Games to Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina.
During the 73 questions session, the greatest female tennis player hinted that Alexis could step up his game a bit.
1 Venus Williams fought a tough first round battle against Belgium’s Kristen Flipkens. “We had a blast out there”, said 34-year-old Serena.
Serena Williams officially announced her arrival at the Olympics on Monday night in her trademark way, one that never goes unnoticed and leaves no one indifferent. Maybe, that’s something romantic he could do for her this Olympics season.
But she didn’t want to use that as an excuse against the Fed Cup champions.
Ivanovic’s match, like all the others on centre court, was played in a stadium that was more than half empty, something likely to disappoint organisers.
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The loss is likely harder to bear for Venus who was knocked out of the singles tournament earlier, thus ending her hope of a fifth gold down in Rio. When she trooped onto the big stage in a large conference room with the other 10 members of the US tennis team late last week, she looked as though she wanted to be anywhere but there. “You’re still there trying to beat her”.
