Serena Williams not at her best in 1st-round win

It has been many years in the making.

The victor of this match will face Britain’s Heather Watson or Ukraine’s 15th seed Elina Svitolina in the third round of the Rio Olympics. This is not, however, Serena’s first time smashing one, as she’s been prone to do in the past. “I’m really exhausted, I’m overwhelmed”.

Meanwhile, World No. 2 Angelique Kerber of Germany begins her quest for her first Olympic singles medal on court 1.

“This is so cool”, Williams wrote.

Serena Williams and Alize Cornet meet in the second round of the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics. The competitive first set took 48 minutes. “I think my last Olympic final four years ago was really windy too”, said Williams.

Because of injuries, del Potro went 2 1/2 years without participating in a major until Wimbledon, so one big question is what his fitness level is. It’s always a little tricky.

Those defeats would have irritated Williams especially the defeat at Wimbledon, as at that point the American was trying to win her 18th Grand Slam singles title to equal Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. Today I was having breakfast at nine o’clock. “She’s really young and she does really well”. And what about her shortcomings in her next two Grand Slams, in Australia and France earlier this year?

“To be honest, I got really exhausted in the second set”, Gavrilova said.

“We can’t play like that, it is the reality”. “I got really flat, and you can’t be flat against Serena because you have to run all the time”. Williams admitted later she had to forget about those past results. She’ll play Colombia’s Mariana Duque-Marino tomorrow morning. Because at the courts everyone was like “I’m so sorry” and I was getting so annoyed.

“It’s the best experience ever”, the world No.46 said. She made her feelings known when she smashed her racket to the court.

And as is often the case, the crowd rooted heartily for the underdog.

Williams will be looking to dominate this match with Cornet by attacking from the baseline using her heavy groundstrokes, and will be hoping to serve well against the Frenchwoman.

“Fortunately enough, I am a pretty good clay-court player, so I’m OK with the slow courts”, said Williams, a three-time French Open champion.

So, when Serena got up to a 3-0 lead in their Olympic second-round match, got broken to make it 3-1, then lost a 24-point game in which she blew four break points – well, Serena got mad.

Williams had no idea who the Campbell sisters were or what sport they competed in when asked about the Australians, but the reigning gold medallist became quite interested in their story after learning of the fate that awaits them in the pool.