Ukraine netter knocks out Serena in Rio
RIO DE JANEIRO — Out of sorts and out of answers, defending champion Serena Williams is out of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Shanking shots of all sorts, including five — yes, five! — double-faults in one game alone, Williams lost to Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-4, 6-3 in the third round in a real shocker Tuesday, ending the No. 1-seeded American’s bid to become the first tennis player to collect a pair of singles golds.
Against an unheralded opponent who at times couldn’t seem to miss, Williams had problems right from the start, when she got broken to fall behind 2-1 with a badly missed overhead into the net. That set a pattern. By match’s end, Svitolina had won 63 points, but merely nine came via clean winners of her own doing. The others came 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, an owner of 22 Grand Slam singles championships.
Their most recent match came at the French Open on June 1, and it ended with Williams winning 6-1, 6-1. So that gives another indication of how unforeseeable Tuesday’s result was.
Give credit to Svitolina, who played a fearless brand of big-strike tennis, sending deep groundstrokes off both wings toward lines and managing to put most right where she wanted them.
Soccer draw for U.S.: With time running out, Catalina Usme beat Hope Solo with a free kick from a tight angle to give Colombia a 2-2 draw against the United States.
Usme also scored in the 26th minute to give the Colombians an early 1-0 lead. It was the team’s first-ever Olympic goal, and first-ever goal against the United States.
Despite the draw, the top-ranked United States still finished atop Group F.
Teenager Mallory Pugh became the youngest player to score for the United States in an Olympics with her goal in the 59th minute, giving the Americans a 2-1 lead. Crystal Dunn also scored for the defending champions.
The U.S. women’s team, the reigning World Cup champions, is vying for its fourth straight Olympic gold medal.
Pugh, just 18, came into the game as a firsthalf substitute for midfielder Megan Rapinoe, who played in her first match since having ACL surgery in December.
In addition to Rapinoe, United States coach Jill Ellis made several other changes to her starting lineup, sitting regular starters Alex Morgan, Tobin Heath and Meghan Klingenberg. Julie Johnston, who sat out the second game with groin injury, was also on the bench.
Morgan came in after the half for Carli Lloyd. Pugh, who hurt her ankle in the 2-0 opening win against New Zealand, went in when Rapinoe was pulled in the 33rd minute as temperatures hovered in the upper 80s.
Armchair warriors: NBC said its Olympic audience reached parity with the London Games for the first time on the third night of competition. But there’s an asterisk involved in the claim.
The network said that its “total audience delivery” was 31.5 million for the Olympics on
Monday night in prime time, compared to the virtually identical 31.6 million who watched on the corresponding night in London in 2012.
The “total audience delivery” figure is a statistic NBC hurriedly invented when it saw sharp declines in its traditional ratings for the first couple of nights of the Rio de Janeiro Games. The Nielsen company said the television audience on NBC on Monday was 28.9 million — strong, but short of London levels.
But NBC is adding the viewership for prime-time telecasts on cable’s NBCSN (1.6 million) and Bravo (720,000) and people who streamed video online (about 300,000) to boost the number to 31.5 million — its “total audience delivery.”
NBC says the comparison is valid because even though the cable viewers weren’t watching the same thing as people tuned in to NBC, they were still watching the Olympics. There’s no comparable number from 2012, because the company didn’t allow its cable affiliates and website to compete with the prime-time NBC telecast four years ago. Lifting gold: With her main rivals serving doping suspensions, Deng Wei won Olympic gold and set a world record in women’s weightlifting.
The Chinese lifter won the 63-kilogram category Tuesday, hoisting 147 kilograms in the clean and jerk and 115 in the snatch for a world-record total of 262. Deng’s clean and jerk lift also broke her own world record by 1 kilo.
“Because this is my first Olympic Games, I was quite nervous,” Deng said. “But I set my goal to break the world record before coming to Rio, so this is actually within my expectations.”
The previous record holder, Lin Tzu-Chi of Taiwan, was a late withdrawal Tuesday after abnormalities were found in a doping test she gave before the Olympics, her team said.
Other top contenders were also absent because of doping.
Choe Hyo Sim of North Korea took silver and Karina Goricheva of Kazakhstan earned bronze.
“I am going to try harder to win gold next time,” Choe said. “I am not happy with the result. I could have tried much harder.” Rugby’s return: Japan’s shocking win over New Zealand and a tournament-ending injury to Sonny Bill Williams proved on the first day of Olympic men’s rugby in 92 years what coaches have long been saying about the sevens format.
“First time Japan has ever beaten our side, but that’s sevens rugby now,” New Zealand coach Gordon Tiejens said. “The gap has closed considerably. If you’re not up for it on the day, you’ll get beaten by any team.”
World series champion Fiji, second-seeded South Africa and Britain secured quarterfinal spots and topped their pools, but nothing came easily Tuesday at Deodoro Stadium.
Japan’s 14-12 upset against New Zealand, its first ever in rugby sevens, and its narrow 21-19 loss to Britain turned the formbook in Pool C upside down.
If that wasn’t enough, the Japanese went within inches of a draw with Britain, missing a chance at a late equalizer when Teruya Goto couldn’t convert Lomano Lemeki’s last-minute try.
“It was heartbreaking. We wanted that goal, so for the next game we’d know we’re going to quarterfinals,” Japan’s Lote Tuqiri said. “Now we need to step up — it’s a must-win game for us against Kenya.”
Still, he reckoned the performances at the Olympics were worth celebrating almost as much as Japan’s win over South Africa last year in the traditional 15-a-side game, which ranked as the biggest upset ever at the Rugby World Cup.
“How Japan finished at the World Cup was really a big boost for Japan rugby and really lifted rugby in Japan,” he said. “Hopefully our win against New Zealand will boost it another level.”