Williams sisters leave Olympics without medals

Free Press wire reports

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

There will be no gold medals for Serena and Venus Williams at the Rio Olympics. Instead, the sisters are leaving the games early.

In a stunning upset, world No. 1 tennis star Serena fell Tuesday to unheralded Elina Svitolina of Ukraine in the third round of the singles tournament. Serena was defeated 6-3, 6-4 by a player she defeated in four previous meetings.

Now 34, Serena had hoped to become the first female tennis player to win two gold medals in the Olympic tennis singles competition. She won gold in both singles and doubles at the 2012 Olympics in London.

Venus, 36, lost in the first round Sunday to end her long shot quest for another Olympics singles medal.

The winner of singles gold in the 2000 games in Sydney, Austrialia, and the first woman to appear in five Olympics, Venus lost 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 to Belgian Kirsten Flipkens.

The biggest upset for the sisters, though, was their jaw-dropping loss in the first round of doubles play Sunday.

Venus and Serena have been dominant in that format, having teamed for gold in 2000, 2008 and 2012.

But with Venus battling illness, the top seeds fell 6-3, 6-4 to Czech pair Barbora Strycova and Lucie Safarova.

After their loss, Serena was philosophical about the result and preferred to focus on the success of one of the greatest ever doubles pairings.

“I wouldn’t say it’s devastating. We had a chance to compete for our country; we did the best that we could. We had a blast out there,” Serena told reporters.

“We’ve had so many Olympic doubles golds, so many grand slam championships. It’s been unbelievable.”

Along with their gold medals, they have won 14 grand slam doubles titles and 29 grand slam singles titles, including 22 for Serena, with the most recent being at Wimbledon in June. The sisters also won the doubles title at Wimbledon this year.