Williams’ nemesis strikes again
ALL of a sudden, Serena Williams is failing to stick around for long at Grand Slam tournaments.
Betrayed by her backhand and, more surprisingly, her usually dangerous serve, five-time Wimbledon champion Williams lost to 25thseeded Alize Cornet of France 1-6 6-3 6-4 yesterday in the third round at the All England Club.
It’s Williams’ earliest Wimbledon exit since 2005, when she was also beaten in the third round. She won the title in 2002, 2003, 2009, 2010 and 2012.
‘‘I don’t know how I did it,’’ Cornet said. ‘‘Just with my heart – and the help of the crowd.’’
The No 1-ranked and No 1-seeded Williams owns 17 Grand Slam titles, but she now has departed before the quarterfinals at four of the past five major tournaments. That includes fourth-round losses at Wimbledon last year and at the Australian Open in January, and a second-round loss at the French Open in May.
Of Williams’ five total losses in all tournaments this season, two have come against Cornet, who also beat the 32-year-old American at the Dubai Championships in February.
Still, this result was rather unexpected, given their comparative Grand Slam careers. Cornet had never been past the third round at the All England Club, and she only once before got to the fourth round of a major – way back at the 2009 Australian Open.
Yesterday’s match was halted at 1-1, deuce in the opening set because of rain. After a delay of about 41⁄ hours, Williams was terrific when they resumed, reeling off five games in a row to grab the first set.
And then, quick as can be, things changed dramatically. Cornet began putting shots right where she wanted them, while Williams had trouble finding the mark.
In all, Williams wound up with 29 unforced errors – 11 more than Cor- net. Two types of strokes troubled Williams – her serve, widely regarded as the best in women’s tennis, let her down repeatedly, with seven double-faults, and her backhand, which produced 12 of those unforced errors. Cornet did not have a single unforced error off her backhand.
In the third set, Cornet took four games in a row to lead 5-2, but got broken while serving for the match the first time. With a second chance, she steadied herself, and on match point, delivered a perfect drop shot.
When Williams netted the response, Cornet pounded her chest, then she hopped around Court 1, before kneeling to kiss the grass.
Cornet had been 0-13 against top20 opponents in Grand Slam matches. Now she’s 1-13. It was by far the most significant – and sur- prising – outcome on a day full of starts and stops thanks to the rain.
Three other Wimbledon champions won on Centre Court, where the roof was closed: Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova.
For his third match in a row this year at Wimbledon, two-time champion Nadal dropped the first set before coming back to win, this time beating 63rd-ranked Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan 6-7 6-1 6-1 6-1.
Sharapova, the 2004 champion, was up next in the main stadium. After falling behind 3-1, she won 11 consecutive games for a 6-3 6-0 victory over 44th-ranked Alison Riske of the United States.
As for Federer, he needed less than 75 minutes to eliminate 35thranked Santiago Giraldo of Colombia 6-3 6-1 6-3.