The Australian Open title definitely won’t stay in the Williams family. After Serena Williams, reigning champion of Australian Open, decided not to participate in the first Grand Slam of the season, her sister Venus quickly finished her participation in the tournament with a 6-3, 7-5 loss against 78th ranked women tennis player in the world, Belinda Bencic.
Although Bencic failed to take a set from Williams in their previous 4 matches, this time she stepped up and defeated one of the tournament’s biggest stars.
“I think I had a little bit too much respect, played a little bit careful and safe,” – said Bencic. “This time I really tried to come out and hit it big.“
Williams had a bad match with 26 unforced errors and just couldn’t find an answer for Bencic’s play.
“I don’t think I played a bad match. She just played above and beyond,” – said Williams. “I just have to give her credit for that.“
Things didn’t go well for other U.S. women at the tournament since they’ve lost nine out of their 10 matches in the first round. This included the U.S. Open champion, Sloane Stephens, who now lost eight straight matches. This time, she was defeated by 34th ranked Zhang Shuai.
“Tennis is definitely a roller coaster,” – said Stephens after the loss. “But I have learned to just not panic. It will be OK.“
CoCo Vandeweghe was a semifinalist in both Australian Open and U.S. Open in the last year loss against Timea Babos in a frustrating match. Irina Falconi, CiCi Bellis, Sofia Kenin, Alison Riske, Taylor Townsend and Jennifer Brady are also out of the tournament. Nicole Gibbs managed to break the U.S. women losing streak by defeating Viktoriya Tomova.
