Former World No. 1 Venus Williams has crashed out of the French Open after losing 6-4, 7-5 to Wang Qiang of China on Sunday.
The match began on a disastrous note for Venus as she lost her serve in a marathon 12 minute opening game. However, the American quickly rebounded from that early setback as she broke back immediately to level the set at a game apiece.
It was extremely hard to see Williams struggling with the timing of her ground-strokes, but she continued to grind on the court and somehow managed to stay with Wang, who was the aggressor from the baseline. But, with the Chinese mounting her assault, it was becoming increasing difficult for Venus to compete with her challenger and eventually the rising pressure resulted in the 37-year-old losing her serve yet again in the ninth game. A little while later, Wang bagged the first set in 50 minutes.
Venus made a positive start in the 2nd set as she was successful in securing an early break before coasting to a 3-0 lead. Wang for the very first time in the encounter found herself under the gun as she had no answer to the seven-time Grand Slam champion’s heavy ground-strokes, which kept on coming one after the other.
When it seemed like that Wang had faltered and Venus had gained the momentum, the Chinese woman rose to the occasion and brought the set back on serve by breaking the famous Williams serve. From there on, the balance of the match continued to tilt in her favor as Venus was finding it more and more difficult to hold on to her serve, while Wang was holding on to her serve with ease.
Eventually, Venus floundered in the 11th game as she failed to hold on to her serve, allowing Wang to serve for the match in the next game. Even though Venus tried her level best to break back, Wang was up to the task as she accomplished her first ever win over a top-10 adversary in an hour and 40 minutes.
After her sensational victory, Wang said: “I played against her (Venus) twice last year and lost. It was very close, so I just tried my best. I think that today I had nothing to lose. Just focus on the court and try my best.”
