TENNIS WIMBLEDON 2014 – On a rainy Saturday, Serena Williams was washed out by Alizé Cornet in three sets 6-1 3-6 4-6. Thus making it the second major in a row where both the number one and number two seeds have been dismissed before the end of the first week. Cordell Hackshaw
Results, Order of Play, Draws and Interviews from The Championships
Serena Williams (1) made another grand exit from her third consecutive major in the early round. She has yet to get past the 4th round of a major all year. This time around at Wimbledon where she was heavily favoured to win the title, she lost to Alize Cornet (25) of France who beat her for a second time in a row. There was much speculation of there being a possible upset in this 3rd round encounter but no one rightly believed that Williams, a five-time singles and doubles champion as well as two-time Olympic champion here at Wimbledon would lose this match. Nonetheless, she did and even more so, it was Cornet who looked to be the most comfortable on the grass court as she defeated Williams in emphatic style 1-6 6-3 6-4 in the nearly two-hour affair. “I couldn’t believe it. I still cannot believe it, actually. If somebody would have told me a couple years ago that I would be in second week here in Wimbledon, beating Serena, I wouldn’t have believed it. It feels great,” said Cornet after the match.
From the start of the match, it was clear that Cornet believed that she could score a second consecutive win off Williams who was looking quite superior in her first two matches. “I just knew that I could do it because I did it once in Dubai,” Cornet later stated. Williams on the other hand, looked very shaky as Cornet earned herself two break points in the very first Williams service game. She converted on the second one but Williams broke back to even it at 1-1. It was 1-1 deuce when play was interrupted for several hours by heavy rainfall. However, upon resumption of play, Williams went on a tear. She closed out that 3rd game with her trademark big serves and then simply shut out Cornet for the rest of the set. Williams targeted the forehand of Cornet and was able to take charge of the rallies. The American hit an amazing crosscourt forehand return winner to break Cornet for the third time in the set and take it 6-1. It was clear that this might be a one-sided affair and Williams was going to move through to the 2nd week of Wimbledon; something she has failed to do only twice in the 14 Wimbledons she has played.
In the 2nd set, something inexplicable happened to Williams because it was a completely different match. Even Williams was at a lost to describe what exactly went wrong, “I don’t know. I tried and it just didn’t work out.” Cornet took over the match and she never for a moment relinquished control. She started off by holding serve for the first time in the match, punctuating this small victory with an ace. “I think she lost a little bit her concentration in the beginning of the second set and I used it to come back in the match, and finally I played way better from the beginning of the second set. I think then the battle was on … I was trying to play just point after point, trying to fight as usual and play simple.” If this were indeed a “battle” as Cornet described it, she simply out-gunned Williams. Cornet broke Williams twice to be up 5-0 in the 2nd set.
Williams could not get any traction on her infamous serve, her ground strokes were misfiring and missing the target. She seemed to have regained some momentum when she won three games in a row; breaking Cornet once and holding serve twice for 3-5. Cornet would end this possible shift in fortunes by taking the set 6-3 ending it by winning another net point. Asked to describe how she was able to take control of the match, Cornet said, “Actually being myself. Just being creative on the court, doing some dropshots, doing some variation with my topspin forehand. Trying to stay focused on the way I was moving on the court, I think it’s very important against Serena … because otherwise Serena, she wouldn’t lose a single chance to make you feel that she is the boss on the court.” In the 3rd set, again it was all Cornet. Williams would have to save four break points in order to hold serve in the opening game. This set the tone for all of Williams’ service game in the set as Cornet had chances to break in nearly all of them; 9 in total for the set. Williams constantly had to fight off break points but eventually Cornet converted in the 5th and 7th games to go up 5-2.
Williams early tactic of targeting the forehand was no longer working and Cornet was simply brilliant up at net winning 14/16 points there. Williams remained aggressive as she too came to net often but it was almost like touching a live wire for the American as she was getting shocked by Cornet. Williams only won 19/32 points in the match either because she failed to make an easy volley or because Cornet was simply able to pick her off and take the point. Cornet served for the match up 5-2 but Williams broke her and then went on to hold serve for 4-5. Cornet was under pressure to close out this match against one of the sport’s greatest champions. Cornet came up with the goods as she held at love. Williams for her part, failed yet again to make easy volleys up at net. Cornet moved through to the 4th round with a 1-6 6-3 6-4 victory. This is only the second time that Cornet has made it to the second week of a major in her 34 appearances at this level.
After the match, Williams stated “Yeah, I thought I was playing pretty well. I worked really hard coming into this event. It’s okay, though. Sometimes it happens. You know, you work hard, maybe it’s not for today, maybe it’s for tomorrow …[S]o I just got to keep going.” She dismissed any notion that this losing streak at majors this year was symptomatic of a larger issue but noted that yet again her serve failed to come to her aid; “I thought my first two matches I served well … I worked really hard on my serve, so I don’t know why it didn’t happen today.” Williams had 3 aces, 7 double faults, got only 66% of her first serves in, won 68% of those points and 30% on her second serves. Cornet for her part had 3 aces, 5 double faults, made 60% of her first serves and won 73% of those points and 30% on second serve. She was able to break Williams 5 times having earned herself 15 break point chances; 11 of those coming in the last two sets. Williams on the other hand would only see three chances to break in the 2nd and 3rd sets after that 1st set when she broke Cornet each time she served. Interestingly enough, they both won 90 points total in the match. However, Williams made 29 winners to 29 errors and Cornet had a ratio of 28 to 18. Cornet will play Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard (13) in the Round of 16 on Monday. Cornet did not want to elaborate on the upcoming match up, “I will think about it tomorrow, think maybe about a different tactic to have against her. But right now I really want to enjoy my win.”
