Serena Williams has lost in the first round of Wimbledon. After a match that lasted almost three hours, the winner of 23 Grand Slam tournaments, lost versus Frenchwoman Harmony Tan 7-5, 1-6, 7-6 (7).
With only one day of preparation, Williams hadn’t played an official match for a year in singles. She was forced to give up last year at Wimbledon with the score set at 3-3 in the first set.
With a wildcard because she dropped to 1204th place on the WTA rankings, Williams decided to go to Wimbledon anyway. So far Serena has won Wimbledon 7 times. The only training she has had so far to get some match rythm was a doubles match with Ons Jabeur.
And the lack of rythm showed as did her fitness. Her fighting spirit was there though so wait until the US Open and we will see the old Serena again. However that didn’t save her against Harmony Tan, 115th on the world ranking, who made her debut at Wimbledon.
Williams looked to make it at 5-4 in the third set when she had matchpoint but Tan’s fighting spirit did not let her down and that cost Serena the match. In a supertiebreak, 10 points, Williams took a 4-0 lead but still couldn’t win.
British crowd favorite Emma Raducanu loses in first round
The British winner of the US Open, Emma Raducanu lost in the second round of Wimbledon. Much to the dismay of the British audience she lost to Caroline Garcia 3-6, 3-6.
The 19 year old Raducanu had her breakthrough at Wimbledon 2021. She was ranked 338 of the world when she reached the 1/8 finales. After that she sensationally won the US Open title as a qualifier. However after that she reached a slump and was plagued by injuries to get consistent good results on the courts.
28 year old Garcia looks to be in bloodform after she won the grass tournament of Bad Homburg. She completely dominated Raducanu in rally’s, broke her serve seven times, hit 24 winners and won her seventh match in a row.
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