Serena’s Rio dream is over
Print Edition
OUT of sorts and out of answers, defending champion Serena Williams is out of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Shanking shots of all sorts, including five — yes, five! — double faults in one game alone, Williams lost to Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 4-6, 3-6 in the third round in a real shocker on Tuesday, ending the No. 1-seeded American’s bid to become the first tennis player to collect a pair of singles golds.
“It didn’t work out the way I wanted it to,” Williams said.
Facing an unheralded opponent, Williams had problems right from the start, when she got broken to fall behind 1-2 with a badly missed overhead into the net.
That set a pattern.
By the end, Svitolina had won 63 points, but merely nine came via clean winners of her own doing. The others came thanks to Williams’ 37 unforced errors and 17 forced errors.
After winning golds in singles and doubles at the 2012 London Olympics, Williams heads home with nothing. She and sister Venus lost in the first round as the No. 1 seed in women’s doubles — their first defeat in the Olympics after going 15-0 with three golds.
Of the four tennis events under way in Rio — mixed doubles hasn’t started yet — all four No. 1 seeds are gone, including Novak Djokovic in the men’s.
No one in the history of Olympic tennis has ever won two gold medals in singles, and while Williams won’t achieve that this week, Andy Murray or Spain’s Rafael Nadal still could.
Both moved into the third round on Tuesday.
This is Nadal’s first tournament since he pulled out of the French Open in May with a wrist injury, and the No. 3 seed wasn’t even sure he would compete in Brazil. Still, everything is going exactly to plan for the owner of 14 grand slam championships and the 2008 Beijing Olympic title, who beat Italy’s Andreas Seppi 6-3, 6-3.
Briton Murray, who won gold in London and is the No. 2 seed, beat Argentina’s Juan Monaco 6-3, 6-1.
Spain’s No. 3 Garbine Muguruza, who beat Williams to win the French Open title, also lost, 1-6, 1-6 to Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig.
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