Serena Williams lost to Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-3 in her third-round Olympic singles match on Tuesday.
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Clearly Serena was in physical pain against Svitolina, but we’ve seen her play many times in physical pain and she still finds ways to win.
Reigning gold medallist Serena Williams, of the USA, and Australian No.1 Samantha Stosur have been knocked out of the Rio Olympics tennis tournament in the third round. “I’m just trying to work and play match by match”. Struggling on the slow courts in the humid conditions, she failed to summon her usually impeccable serve which was the biggest architect of her downfall.
Svitolina was able to capitalize on an uncharacteristically sloppy match from Williams, who had 37 unforced errors and eight double faults.
“I didn’t expect that I could win”. She couldn’t push back hard enough against Svitolina on Tuesday after breaking Svitolina’s serve to pull even at 3-3 in the second set. But she won’t add any medal to her four career golds. “I think that helped me a lot to not expect a mistake from her and just stay focused”.
Having already lost in doubles with her sister, Venus, Williams heads home without any hardware for the first time in her Olympic career.
Svitolina will face two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova for a place in the semi-finals.
Svitolina had won just one set in four previous losses to Williams, but doubled that tally thanks to the 34-year-old’s early errors.
“It’s one of my dreams to play against her and to beat her – I don’t think I was even dreaming about that”, said the Ukrainian. Also in action throughout Wednesday, August 10 on Day 5 of the Games will be the likes of Rafael Nadal, Venus Williams in mixed doubles action, Marin Cilic, and many other great players.
Williams was however in good company as third seed Garbine Muguruza of Spain, who beat Williams for the French Open title two months ago, also exited, 6-1, 6-1 against Monica Puig of Puerto Rico. It’s unclear if she was suffering from any physical problems in Rio, but she certainly didn’t look like herself at any point.
Williams was the reigning Olympic gold medalist, beating Maria Sharapova, 6-0, 6-1, in London in 2012.
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It was a similar story at the start of the second set as Svitolina claimed a 3-1 lead after breaking Williams in the third game. “To win a gold medal at the Olympics (would) make it so special, and if I can do it it’s just – unreal”.
