Rio de Janeiro, August 10: Serena Williams’ hopes of a fifth Olympic gold medal were crushed by Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina on Tuesday as the battle for the women’s title in Rio was blown wide open. Top seed and defending champion Williams was clearly struggling with a right shoulder injury as she was stunned 6-4 6-3 by Svitolina, 13 years her junior.
“The better player won,” said Williams, who served up eight double faults, including five in one game in the second set. She also hit 37 unforced errors. “It was a great opportunity. It didn’t work out the way I wanted it to, but at least I was able to make it to Rio. That was one of my goals.”
Defeat for the 34-year-old means that the Rio tournament has lost both its number one players before the quarter finals after Novak Djokovic went out in the first round. Only three of the top 10 seeds have made it to the last-eight of the women’s draw.
Defending Olympic champion Andy Murray of Britain, rolled over Argentina’s Juan Monaco 6-3, 6-1 in the men’s singles tennis competition at the 2016 Rio Games to advance to the round of 16.
The No. 2 seed Murray dominated the world No. 107 on Tuesday and stayed on track as the favourite to win the gold following Serbian top seed Novak Djokovic’s elimination over the weekend, reports Efe. The Scotsman, who won his second Wimbledon title last month, needed just 68 minutes to beat Monaco. Murray will play the winner of the match between France’s Benoit Paire and Italy’s Fabio Fognini in the round of 16.
Spanish great Rafael Nadal beat Italy’s Andreas Seppi 6-3, 6-3 to advance to the round of 16 in the Rio 2016 Olympic tennis tournament.
His win followed losses earlier on Tuesday by compatriots David Ferrer, Carla Suarez and GarbiAe Muguruza that left Nadal -- the gold medalist at the 2012 London Games -- as Spain’s only option for a medal in singles play, reports Efe.
The Olympics mark Nadal’s return to competition after a two-month hiatus due a wrist injured that forced him to withdraw from the French Open.
World No. 5 Nadal jumped out to a 3-0 lead over the 71st-ranked Italian, who hasn’t won a tournament since 2012, and rolled to a fairly easy victory.
Rafa’s next opponent will be Gilles Simon of France, who beat Japan’s Yuichi Sugita 7-6 (3), 6-2.
