Serena, Venus bounced in doubles
RIO DE JANEIRO — Three-time doubles gold medalists Serena and Venus Williams lost an Olympic match as partners for the first time, stunned in the opening round of the Summer Games by the Czech Republic’s Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova 6-3, 6-4.
The Williams sisters entered Sunday’s match with a 15-0 career record in the Olympics, winning the gold medal in women’s doubles every time they entered the event — in 2000, 2008 and 2012.
“We played terrible,” Serena said, “and it showed in the results.”
The American duo was seeded No. 1 in Rio and coming off a 14th Grand Slam championship together at Wimbledon a month ago.
Neither Safarova nor Strycova had won an Olympic doubles match, going a combined 0-3 with other partners. They are unseeded in Rio.
And they weren’t even supposed to be playing together because Strycova was a late replacement for Karolina Pliskova, who withdrew from the tournament. Still, Strycova said: “We’re good friends, and we know each other’s games.”
Del Potro sends Djokovic packing
Juan Martin del Potro is back, and Novak Djokovic is gone.
The top-ranked Novak Djokovic was swept out of the men’s singles tennis competition, losing in the first round to the 2009 U.S. Open champion 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2).
With the loss, Djokovic is left seeking his first Olympic gold medal.
Earlier, Rafael Nadal was back in action, playing his first competitive match in 2½ months after an injury to his left wrist.
He was not, Nadal insisted after a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Argentina’s Federico Delbonis, back at full strength, however.
“My wrist is not perfect. My wrist needs more time,” the Spaniard said.
Odds and ends
The fifth-ranked U.S. men’s volleyball team, which includes eight first-time Olympians on its roster of 12, lost its opening pool-play game, falling to No. 12 Canada 25-23, 25-17, 25-23. … Dutch cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten suffered three small fractures in her spine and will remain hospitalized in intensive care after crashing during the women’s road race. Van Vleuten was leading on the fast, slippery descent of Vista Chinesa when she appeared to lock up her brakes on the final corner. She tumbled onto the road and her bike went flying. She remained on the edge of the pavement as the rest of the field swept past. Teammate Anna van der Breggen went on to win the gold medal. … A day after gruesomely breaking his left leg while vaulting during the men’s preliminaries, French gymnast Samir Air Said was recovering after undergoing surgery to repair the fibula and tibia he fractured while trying to land a vault.