Despite the amount of time both Serena and Venus Williams had off the WTA with injury the sisters were still considered to be amongst the favourites at Wimbledon due to their incredible record. Serena (more than Venus) was being watched for a potential fairytale title defense.
Not long after a subdued Serena made a last ditch attempt to fight off Marion Bartoli before falling in straight sets 6-3, 7-6, Venus was also knocked out of the tournament. Venus fell to Tsvetana Pironkova 6-2, 6-3, the same player who beat her at Wimbledon last year.
Venus was perplexed by her seeming inability to play well against Pironkova rather than commending Tsvetana for was was a brilliant performance.
“It’s kind of inexplicable why I manage to play some of my worst tennis against her.
It’s not like I’m intimidated at all by anybody on tour. I’m not sure why. I don’t play my best against her. She runs down a lot of balls. Very consistent off the ground. I had some chances in the second set, but I just kept making errors.”
Serena has battled through some incredible problems this year, apparently vomiting blood at one point during her fight against a pulmonary embolism and a haematoma. Serena’s fighting spirit was still on display as she tried to fight off match point after match point but she simply looked too deflated to do anything significant to stop Bartoli.
“Next year I’ll have less things to worry about. I didn’t do so well this year, so I have no points to defend (next year). It will just be good.
Considering my condition … I really feel I did well as a player. I obviously would love to do better, but at the end of the day I think I did pretty good.”
