World No. 1 Serena Williams overcame another tough challenge in her hard draw at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Monday, in the second round defeating French upset-maker Alize Cornet 7-6 (5), 6-2.
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Serena in the third round will face No. 15 seed Elina Svitolina, who outlasted Britain’s Heather Watson 6-3, 1-6, 6-3. In one game during the second set, for instance, Williams collected two aces-but offset them with five double faults.
Venus, who has also captured three doubles golds with sister Serena, had her opportunities, leading 3-1 in the second set and 4-1 in the decider.
She’s there defending her Olympic singles gold medal.
By the time she got to Maracana Stadium, the photos and videos turned to twerking, and her sense of wonder at her fourth Olympic Games. The competitive first set took 48 minutes. I really wanted to play well because she always seems to play well against me, ‘ she mentioned quite sarcastically.
Williams missed last month’s Rogers Cup in Canada with inflammation of the shoulder, and here she looked uncomfortable throughout the second set.
World number two Murray is looking to make the most of the shock opening round exit of top seed Novak Djokovic and become the first man to win two singles golds.
As the brackets slim down and lesser competitors are eliminated, many draws feature big-name match-ups. “I don’t think I was even dreaming about that”.
Cornet then took the lead for 5-4 forcing Williams to serve to stay in the set.
Serena Williams lost her cool.
But Williams broke back to level at 3-3 despite being hampered by a number of unforced errors.
“I just needed to relax. I said “Serena”, and she said “oh awesome, you’re going to beat her”, Gavrilova said of her conversation with Watts.
The 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 scoreline gave the Spanish pair a quarter-final spot, adding to the workload for Nadal who is still in singles and intends to play mixed doubles. The two have played against each other four times in WTA events, with Williams owning a 4-0 edge.
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“I’m getting better. I’m in good shape”, he said, “but I don’t know if I’m prepared to play six or more matches”.
