I wouldn’t actually say it was devastating, it was a lot of fun, and we’ll always remember these moments, these matches.
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“They just enjoyed my game because, I think, I’m a little girl trying to do some special stuff to get a chance to beat a champion like that”, Flipkens said.
But these were the Williams women, winners of 14 Grand Slam doubles titles.
“Venus said she and Serena will now focus on the US Open later this month”.
Williams’ loss was part of a rough day for the United States tennis team.
Serena and Venus Williams are eliminated from the women’s double competition in Rio de Janeiro in the first round.
“But we came up against a very strong team. It’s hard to explain the emotions I got walking into that stadium, and obviously that carried over to today”, said the 27-year-old.
The world number one said: “It was a really tough match for us, a really tough draw, but we’re used to tough draws”. She has been sick since before going to Rio for the Olympics.
Serena, 34, was more damning. We played awful and that basically showed in the results.
Serena will be back in action Monday, as she faces Alize Cornet of France in the second round of the women’s singles tournament.
He is joined by 2008 champion Rafael Nadal of Spain, who overcame Argentina’s Federico Delbonis in straight sets to book a date with Italy’s Andreas Seppi.
On the other hand, London Games champion Andy Murray was the highest-ranking male player to pass the first round after a comfortable 6-3 6-2 victory against Serbia’s Viktor Troicki. They said that though it was only their second time playing together, they were really good friends.
In the men’s doubles, there was more bad news for the siblings as Jamie and Andy Murray lost their first round tie against the Brazilian duo of Andre Sa and Thomaz Belluci.
It’s a huge loss for Williams, who showed promising signs earlier this year by making it to the fourth round of the French Open and the semifinals of Wimbledon.
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Another notable casualty on the first day of competition was former world No 1 Ana Ivanovic, who surged ahead in the first set against world No 12 Carla Suarez Navarro but lost 2-6 6-1 6-2 after two error-strewn sets.
