Sisters Serena and Venus Williams made an early exit at the Roland Garros 2014 French Open tournament on Wednesday with unexpected wins by their lower-ranked opponents.
Venus Williams was the first to lose despite leading a set and a break. The 29th-ranked American lost to Slovakia’s Anna Schmiedlova 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.
The highly-anticipated all-Williams third round match was not meant to be after world number one and defending champion Serena Williams also crashed out on the same round to Spain’s Garbine Muguruza. The scoreline was even more surprising at 6-2, 6-2.
“She was my favorite player as a kid, and I watched her on TV growing up,” Muguruza said. “When I practiced, I studied how Serena serves, how she plays a backhand. I saw like 100 videos of her. It was really difficult to be able to be calm and say, ‘It’s just another player who I can beat if I play well.’ But I think I did it, and that was the reason I was able to play like this.”
Serena Williams wouldn’t attribute the loss to injury and won’t come up with an excuse and even complimented her opponent.
“It was one of those days,” Williams said. “You know, you can’t be on every day. I hate to be off during a Grand Slam, but it happens. It’s not the end of the world. It is what it is.
“I love it here, but there’s always next year. At least I won’t have any points to defend next year, so I look forward to it.
“I’m going to go home and work five times as hard to make sure I never lose again.”
