Serena Williams reacts during her women’s singles third round match against Elina Svitolina of Ukraine at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Tennis Centre on August 9, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.
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RIO DE JANEIRO – The inexplicable can happen in tennis, but Serena Williams’ performance at the 2016 Olympics will truly go down as one of the biggest head-scratchers of her career.
Williams lost 6-4 6-3 to Svitolina, ranked 20th in the world.
She conceded five breaks of serve one of which came in a horror seventh game in the second set during which she sprayed five double faults. She was struggling a bit, and I could see that if I pushed a little more, I could be on top.
“Hey, I’m happy to be on the same team as Serena Williams, it’s thanks to her that I was able to get my ranking up and qualify”, said Keys.
“It was a career opportunity”, Williams said.
But Williams broke back to level at 3-3 despite being hampered by a number of unforced errors.
Williams had suffered her first-ever loss in the Olympics just two days previously, in a doubles match with her sister, Venus, as a teammate.
The women’s quarterfinals are set: Svitolina against Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic; Angelique Kerber of Germany against Johanna Konta of Britain; Madison Keys of the USA against Daria Kasatkina of Russian Federation; and Monica Puig of Puerto Rico against Laura Siegemund of Germany.
On July 24, Williams withdrew from a tournament in Montreal because of inflammation in her shoulder. She also won gold in doubles at the 2000 and 2008 Olympics. “I think that helped me a lot, don’t expect a mistake from her and just fight and be focused”. The crowd in attendance grew tense when Williams dropped another break early in the second set.
Her results since the French Open in June tell a different story.
When Williams held serve easily to open the second set, it felt like the momentum would swing in her favor. “To beat her, I don’t think I was even dreaming about that”.
“The feeling is unreal”.
Puig has had a breakout season, starting the year at 92 and now standing on the cusp of the top 30.
“I only had five hours’ sleep but I’m very glad with my success”, he said.
In men’s competition, second seed Andy Murray raced into the last 16, blitzing Juan Monaco of Argentina 6-3, 6-1.
Rafael Nadal, of Spain, seen through the Olympic rings on the net as center court, returns to Andreas Seppi, of Italy, at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. Kvitova defeated Ekatarina Makarova of Russian Federation in the third round, 4-6 6-4 6-4. Minutes later, French team officials said that Paire was being expelled from the Games for “flouting rules”.
Japan’s shocking win over New Zealand and a tournament-ending injury to Sonny Bill Williams proved on the first day of Olympic men’s rugby in 92 years what coaches have always been saying about the sevens format.
The 34-year-old was broken in the first set and couldn’t recover against the Ukrainian.
Second seed Angelique Kerber eased past Australia’s 2011 U.S. Open victor Samantha Stosur 6-0, 7-5.
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Kerber next faces Australia’s Samantha Stosur who was too strong for Misaki Doi of Japan, winning 6-3, 6-4.
