Serena Williams' bid for a second consecutive Olympic singles gold medal fell apart in a stunning third-round upset.
The No. 1-seeded American lost the third-round match of the Rio de Janeiro Games against Elina Svitolina of Ukraine by a score of 6-4,6-3 on Tuesday night.
Williams was not playing all that well: Of the 29 points Svitolina won in the first set, only two came via clean winners of her own doing. Her other points came from 15 unforced errors and 12 forced errors by Williams.
The loss caps a bad week for Serena and her sister Venus. The Williams sisters lost a first-round doubles match Sunday to Lucie Šafářová and Barbora Strýcová from the Czech Republic. Venus Williams lost her first-round match against Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium on Saturday.
Svitolina has never before played in the Olympics and only once been to a major quarterfinal. She entered the night 0-4 against Williams, an owner of 22 Grand Slam singles championshp, the 2012 Olympic singles title and three Olympic doubles golds.
