Serena Williams was defeated at the French Open on Sunday, falling short of a record-tying 24th title.
Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina defeated Williams, 39, 6-3, 7-5, in the Paris tournament, preventing the U.S. tennis star from tying the record 24 singles titles won by Margaret Court.
“I’m so close. There is literally a point here, a point there, that could change the whole course of the match,” Williams, who ended up with 19 unforced errors, said. “I’m not winning those points. That, like, literally could just change everything.”
FUNNY HOW SERENA HAS TROUBLE WITH REFEREES ONLY WHEN SHE’S LOSING
Williams won her 23rd singles title at the 2017 Australian Open while pregnant with her daughter, Alexis Ohanian Jr. She has since been defeated twice in the semifinals, once in the third round, and once in the fourth round.
The upset follows news that another player who once defeated Williams in competition, Naomi Osaka, would sit out the French Open. After Osaka announced she would not participate in media interviews, citing mental health concerns, the U.S. Tennis Association, the French Tennis Federation, the All England Lawn Tennis Club, and Tennis Australia jointly announced Osaka would be fined $15,000 for breaching their agreement.
“We want to underline that rules are in place to ensure all players are treated exactly the same, no matter their stature, beliefs or achievement,” the joint statement said. “As a sport there is nothing more important than ensuring no player has an unfair advantage over another, which unfortunately is the case in this situation if one player refuses to dedicate time to participate in media commitments while the others all honour their commitments.”
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Osaka withdrew from the tournament on May 31.
“I think now the best thing for the tournament, the other players and my well-being is that I withdraw so that everyone can get back to focusing on the tennis going on in Paris. I never wanted to be a distraction and I accept that my timing was not ideal and my message could have been clearer,” she wrote of her decision. “More importantly I would never trivialize mental health or use the term lightly. The truth is that I have suffered long bouts of depression since the US Open in 2018 and I have had a really hard time coping with that.”
