Serena likens loss to ‘dating a guy you know sucks’

Serena Williams let lead after lead slip away as yet another match stretched to a third set and she started getting cramps in her weary legs on the way to a surprising loss at the Western & Southern Open.

“I don’t think that helps mentally, when you know the match is over and you won the match, and now your legs were already tried and now they’re even more tired,” Williams said. “I put myself in a bad situation. It’s like dating a guy that you know sucks.”

Early on, Williams got flustered when she got called for taking too much time between points. Later, she flung away her racket after letting the second set get away. In the end, she finished rather meekly in a 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-1 upset against Maria Sakkari.

This was Williams’ fifth match since professional tennis resumed amid the corona virus pandemic after a hiatus of nearly six months – and all five have gone three sets. She is 3-2 up in that stretch.

The result against No 13 seed Sakkari was hardly promising for Williams, pictured, as the US Open’s start approaches next week.

“It’s hard to play the way I’ ve been playing and to stay positive. And to play nine hours in a week is too much. I don’t usually play like that,” Williams said.

“I literally should have won that match. There was no excuse. It was tough, but I had so many opportunities to win. I have to figure that one out – how to start winning those matches again.”

NovakDjokovic’ s neck felt much better, and his tennis looked much better, in a 6-2,6-4 victory over unseeded American Tennys Sandgren.

Djokovic was treated by a trainer and played sluggishly in his opening match on Monday, but he was a this best from the outset against Sandgren and saved all four break points he faced.

Djokovic will face 34thranked Jan-lennard Struff in the quarter-finals.