French Open: Serena, Osaka Au Revoir'd in Third Round
One of Serena Williams' many career achievements withstood a challenge in the 2019 French Open's third round.
It didn't have anything to do with her day, though.
The WTA No 1, Naomi Osaka, was surprised by the Czech Republic's Kateřina Siniaková, who swiftly dispatched her, 6-4,6-2. This ended her attempt at becoming the first woman to win three consecutive major trophies since Williams racked up four in a row in 2014-15.
Still, Serena joined in on the bad day's theme by dropping her match with 20-year-old Russian-American Sonya Kenin -- her given name's Sofia, but she goes by Sonya -- in straight sets, 6-2, 7-5.
Those results headlined a busy Saturday in Paris:
Williams is still one Slam title short of Margaret Court's all-time record of 24 total championships.
As with most power servers, Serena's game requires subtle adjustments to clay-court competition because it:
- slows down the speed of the ball,
- reduces the skid of the ball on the surface of the court, and
- causes a high bounce.
Clearly, she's overcome these factors before, but she was on her game to do it. That wasn't evident today.
Osaka had been in turbulent waters from the tourney's outset.
She struggled to overcome her first- and second-round matches, and looked outta sorts at Roland Garros. Maybe that's the clay-court effect, too, as she was looking to add a fourth straight Slam title to her list of accomplishments.
Needless to say, the women's bracket is seriously down to whomever can play in the dirt effectively.