The Women’s Singles tournament at Wimbledon will continue without two of America’s most prominent tennis stars. Both Venus Williams and Madison Keys were bounced from the tournament after each suffered third round upsets on Friday.
The ninth-seeded Williams lost a heartbreaker to Kiki Bertrans 6-2, 6-7 (5), 8-6. Williams played most of the match with her back against the wall. The 38-year-old dropped the first set and needed to win a second set tiebreaker to give herself a chance in the final set. Williams lost the first set in each of her first three matches.
“Probably too many errors,” Williams told reporters when asked about what led to slow starts at the All England Club. “But my opponents also played well.”
Williams exits after making her 21st appearance at Wimbledon — the most among active players. The five-time champion says she plans to be back in London for next year’s tournament.
Meanwhile, Keys dropped her third round match against unseeded Russian Evgeniya Rodina 7-5, 5-7, 6-4. The 10th-seeded American blamed her loss on a lack of focus.
“I felt good, was up 5-2, and then I feel like I kind of felt my mind go away, and played a couple of sloppy games,” said Keys. “All of a sudden it’s 5-all, and that’s when nerves hit me. Then it was just kind of dealing with that.”
Keys even admitted that she was looking ahead to a potential fourth round showdown against Serena Williams during her match with Rodina. Keys’ 48 unforced errors were too much for the 23-year-old to overcome. Meanwhile, Rodina played a mostly clean match — making just 11 unforced errors against Keys.
With Williams and Keys out, only one of the top 10 seeds will not advance beyond the third round of this year’s tournament. The 25th seed Serena Williams is the only American remaining in the field.
