Serena Williams’ legendary tennis career likely over after third-round singles’ play loss at US Open (2/4/18)
Serena Williams was in tears on the court in the locker room after losing her third-round match of the U.S. Open semifinals yesterday.
Williams, who has won five of her 14 grand slam singles titles and is the only player to win four consecutive singles grand slam events, was trailing world No. 1 Serena and world No. 2 Simona Halep.
Williams went on to lose 7-6 (3), 7-6 (3) — a blow to her hopes of defending her singles titles when she reaches her 20th and 21st grand slam finals.
“I didn’t give it my all,” Williams said at one point. “I didn’t give it my all. We battled through the match and fought. I don’t know, in some match I would have been ready to sacrifice everything.”
The top two seeds will meet in the finals which will be played at 7:37 p.m. ET.
Williams and Halep also were struggling with fitness at times yesterday morning. Halep looked like tennis royalty as she beat No. 5 Madison Keys of the U.S. in the third round with a 6-3, 6-3 victory.
Keys dropped a 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 match to Italian Camila Giorgi in another women’s singles match.
Halep, though, is not concerned.
“I’m fine, I’m good, and I’m going to fight,” said Halep. “I have more motivation than what Serena and I have because we’re going to play well. I don’t really care about the pressure, I’m just going to keep fighting.”
Halep will play Williams in the quarters. The winner of the first two games of each match earns a spot in the semifinals on Monday.
The top-seed from the U.S. has won eight
