Rio 2016 Olympics Tennis: Serena and Venus Williams Lost Straight Sets To Czechs, Ends Domination in Doubles; Match Schedules, Winners and Projections
Women's tennis has always been one of the sources for Team USA's medal haul in the Olympics because of the Williams sisters and their dominance since joining, affording 15 straight wins since four Olympics ago. However, hopes for gold collapsed after a heartbreaking loss to Czechs Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova who made a sweeping victory.
The tides turned when the sisters lost key points in the first set where the Czech pair made a 6-3. The second set looked promising when the Williams matched the Czechs almost point-for-point and even arrived at 4-3. They later lost momentum and the set ended with 6-4, giving the Czechs a sweeping victory.
Losing early in the competition
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Both Serena and Venus Williams are heavy favorites to run away with the gold since they are seeded number one and came in fresh from the Grand Slam Championship. Instead, the duo ended up with their first Olympic loss since winning gold at the Sydney 2000 Games, Beijing 2008 Games and London 2012 Games.
The opposing team, Republic of Czechoslovakia, fielded unseeded players. Strycova is just a late substitute after Safarova's original teammate withdrew. Moreover, neither Safarova nor Strycova ever chanced victory at an Olympic doubles match, going a combined 0-3 with other partners.
Observers are saying that the biggest contributor to the setback is Venus' earlier defeat against Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium in the women's singles. Venus carried the shock all throughout the succeeding game with sister Serena.
What went wrong?
Another factor can be traced from a statement by US women's tennis coach, Mary Joe Fernandez, on Saturday that she is in doubt about Venus' availability for doubles. This is because the four-time gold medalist and seven-time Grand Slam champion had cramping, dehydration and an upset stomach following a first-round loss earlier.
Meanwhile, Serena had better luck clinging to her Olympic singles gold medal after winning with a convincing 6-4, 6-2 victory over Australia's Daria Gavrilova on Sunday.
For the tennis fans, here is the schedule for the women's events and respective match up;
Day 3: Monday, Aug. 8: Women's singles round of 32, starting at 9:45 a.m.
No. 1 Serena Williams vs. Alize Cornet
No. 2 Angelique Kerber vs. Eugenie Bouchard
No. 3 Garbine Muguruza vs. Nao Hibino
No. 7 Madison Keys vs. Kristina Mladenovic
No. 8 Svetlana Kuznetsova vs.Monica Niculescu
No. 9 Carla Suarez Navarro vs. Ana Konjuh
No. 10 Johanna Konta vs. Caroline Garcia
No. 11 Petra Kvitova vs. Caroline Wozniacki
No. 13 Samantha Stosur vs. Misaki Doi
No. 14 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs. Monica Puig
No. 15 Elina Svitolina vs. Heather Watson
No. 16 Barbora Strycova vs. Sara Errani
Ekaterina Makarova vs. Anna Karolina Schmiedlova
Daria Kasatkina vs. Saisai Zheng
Lucie Safarova vs. Kirsten Flipkens
Laura Siegemund vs. Shuai Zhang
Day 4: Tuesday, Aug. 9: Women's singles round of 16, starting at 9:45 a.m.
Day 5: Wednesday, Aug. 10: Women's singles quarterfinals, starting at 9:45 a.m.
Day 6: Thursday, Aug. 11: Women's singles semifinals, starting at 11 a.m.
Day 7: Friday, Aug. 12: Rest
Day 8: Saturday, Aug. 13: Gold medal match at 11 a.m., bronze medal match at 3 p.m.
