The aura of invincibility that has surrounded Serena Williams for the past year is starting to break down.
With little more than a week before Williams defends her title in the French Open, the top-ranked American lost Saturday for the second time in two tournaments.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 defeat to Amelie Mauresmo in the semifinals of the Italian Open was highlighted by Williams' failure to serve out the match while leading 5-4 in the second set.
Such glaring missed opportunities were a rarity for Williams when she claimed her so-called "Serena Slam" by winning four consecutive majors starting at Roland Garros last year and concluding at the Australian Open in January.
Saturday's loss was only William's second this year, but both have come recently and both have come on clay, the same surface used in Paris.
Williams, who was also the defending champion in Rome, missed a tricky backhand volley while up 5-4 in the second set that gave Mauresmo a break to get back on serve. Mauresmo promptly won three straight games and stretched the match into a third set.
After trading breaks early in the final set, Mauresmo broke again to go ahead 5-3 when Williams' shot was called long on an overrule by the chair umpire.
Helped by four errors from Williams, Mauresmo then served out the match.
"Everything went wrong for me," Williams said. "I was making too many errors and struggling with my serve. I guess that sums it up. You can't win a match with a second serve.
"There was nothing in particular she did. When I lose a match it's usually because of how I played. In the end it's better to lose in Rome than in Paris."
Williams had cruised through the first set in just 21 minutes as Mauresmo -- the No. 4 seed from France -- won just four points in the first five games.
Mauresmo is attempting to win her second title of the year after defeating Williams' sister Venus in the Warsaw final two weeks ago. She beat Jennifer Capriati in the quarterfinals on Friday.
In the final of this US$1.3 million event, Mauresmo will meet second-seeded Clijsters, who did not have much trouble in defeating the 13th-seeded Sugiyama.
Perhaps slightly unnerved by waiting longer than expected for the Williams-Mauresmo match to end, Clijsters lost her serve in the opening game.
After a quick recovery, however, Clijsters was the same dominating player she has been in each of her matches here thus far. She improved to 4-2 in head-to-head matchups against Sugiyama, who is Clijsters' doubles partner.
The Foro Italico crowd did their best to encourage Sugiyama, who was the first Japanese semifinalist in the tournament's history. One fan held aloft a sign written in Japanese that read: "Let's Go Ai."
Kim Clijsters, defeated Ai Sugiyama 6-3, 6-2 in Saturday's other semifinal. In Sunday's final, Clijsters will be aiming for her third title of the year. Clijsters and Mauresmo have split their previous meetings with two wins each.
In the doubles final, 46-year-old Martina Navratilova and 17-year-old Svetlana Kuznetsova will meet Jelena Dokic and Nadia Petrova.
Hamburg Masters
Agustin Calleri and Guillermo Coria will meet in the final of the Hamburg Masters.
On a historic tennis day for Argentina, Calleri beat David Nalbandian 6-4, 6-1 on Saturday and the 12th-seeded Coria overcame Gaston Gaudio 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-0.
Never before had four players from Argentina reached the semifinals at one ATP tournament. It was also the first time four countrymen contested the semifinals of a Masters Series, the nine tournaments that rank just below the Grand Slams.
"It's something very big for our country," Calleri said. The last Argentine to win in Hamburg was Guillermo Vilas in 1978.
Nalbandian, last year's Wimbledon finalist, was the highest-seeded player still in the event at No. 8. Although technically an upset, his defeat against Calleri wasn't a complete surprise.
Nalbandian concedes that clay is not his best surface and that he is more comfortable on hard courts. Calleri, on the other hand, has compiled the best record on clay this season along with Gaudio, 24-7, and won his first ATP title in Acapulco.
He is in his third final on clay this year.
Coria, whose record on clay is 17-4, rallied and rolled through the final set.
"I had to play short points in the third set and to be aggressive," Coria said. "Without the trainer, I couldn't have finished the match."
Gaudio appeared to grab Coria rather strongly by the shoulder after the match, but both players denied any incident.
"Maybe he was upset that I finished the match," Coria said.
Nalbandian had won four of five previous matches against Calleri.
"You never know what he's going to do," a visibly disappointed Nalbandian said after the match.
‘AWFUL PERFORMANCE’: Golden State were always chasing the game after failing to threaten from long range, making just eight of 33 three-point attempts Aaron Gordon on Monday scored 38 points as the Denver Nuggets shrugged off the absence of Nikola Jokic to halt the Golden State Warriors’ seven-game winning streak with a 114-105 victory over their Western Conference rivals. A dazzling display from Gordon inspired what was ultimately a comfortable win for Denver, who were missing regular starters Jokic and Jamal Murray from their lineup. The absentees were barely felt by Denver, who startled the Warriors early at San Francisco’s Chase Center and led for most of the game. The Warriors threatened to stage a late rally after slashing the Nuggets’ fourth-quarter lead from 15 points
Barcelona’s Ferran Torres scored twice on Sunday to help secure a late 4-2 comeback win at Atletico Madrid in a pulsating La Liga clash that took the Catalan side back to the top of the table. Barca have 60 points and a game in hand after last week’s postponement of their home game with CA Osasuna. They are level on points with Real Madrid, who won 2-1 at Villarreal on Saturday. “I am happy and proud of this team,” Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick told a news conference. “They never give up... It’s a great three points and we are happy to
Paolo Banchero on Sunday scored 24 points as the Orlando Magic overturned a 13-point deficit to end the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 16-game unbeaten streak with a gutsy 108-103 road victory. Cleveland, the runaway Eastern Conference leaders, had looked poised to extend their franchise-record winning run after surging clear of Orlando early in the third quarter, but after a season where they have staged hefty winning comebacks of their own, the tables turned on Cleveland in the face of a furious burst of Orlando scoring. The Magic outscored Cleveland 35-23 in the third quarter, with Franz Wagner leading the charge with nine points and
Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday held their nerve to beat Liverpool 4-1 on penalties and reach the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals after their tie finished one-apiece on aggregate, while Bayern Munich saw off Bayer 04 Leverkusen to complete a 5-0 win over both legs. Lamine Yamal and Raphinha fired Barcelona into the next round as the Catalans bested SL Benfica 3-1, and Inter booked a last-eight meeting with Bayern by seeing off Feyenoord 2-1. At Anfield, Ousmane Dembele netted the only goal of the night as PSG bounced back from Liverpool’s late winner last week to force the tie to extra-time and penalties. Maligned
RSS