In a very surprising turn of events, defending champion Serena Williams has been kicked out of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Williams lost to Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-4, 6-3 in the third round in a real shock Tuesday, ending the No. 1-seeded American’s bid to become the first tennis player to collect a pair of singles golds.
Williams seems to have had problems right from the start, when she got broken to fall behind 2-1 with a badly missed overhead into the net.
By match’s end, Svitolina had won 63 points,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 from Brazil with nothing. She and her older sister Venus, who sat in the stands Tuesday, lost in the first round of doubles — their first defeat in the Olympics after going 15-0 with three golds.
The 20th-ranked Svitolina, meanwhile, never before played in the Olympics and only once has been to a major quarterfinal. She also entered the night 0-4 against Williams, the owner of 22 Grand Slam singles championships.
Williams is not the only worlds no 1 to have b the n stunned out it the competition. Men’s ni 1 Novak Djokovic experienced similar fate.
The current French Open and Australian Open champion shed tears of frustration after he was beaten by Juan Martin del Potro 7-6 7-4 on Sunday and suffered more disappointment when he and partner Nenad Zimonjic lost in the second round against Brazilian duo Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares.
Guess that what’s the Olympics is really about: Surprises especially from the underdogs. Feel bad for Serena though.
And my crush is out…
You win some… you lose some.