Despite being traditional crowd favorites, it will be the first time that Serena and Venus Williams will not be proceeding to the Wimbledon singles in its second week.
In a report by The Guardian, Serena Williams lost for the second time in 2014 to Alize Cornet. Her first loss was in February 2014 at the Dubai Championships. The final scores revealed 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.
It was also the first time that Cornet, ranked No. 25, beat a top-20 player at a grand slam. She was not so fond of grass, but realized that the game was going in her favor. She said, "I cannot believe it. A few years ago, I couldn't play on grass but now I have beaten the world No. 1. It's the biggest upset of the tournament. A dream. I cannot believe I did it myself - me! - but the tournament is not over for me."
Cornet came in the tennis court with confidence, after beating Williams earlier in Dubai.
Serena showed a lot of power in the opening round. Cornet made the opening break but Serena managed to pull back. Due to the rain, the umpire had to call both players off the court. They returned only after four and a half hours. Serena had a lot of winners in the first set and dominated to 1-6.
Cornet said, "After the break because of the rain I was so slow. I thought this is going to be tough. But she helped me a lot with few mistakes."
Cornet had the momentum in the second set and managed to break as far as 5-0 before Serena rebounded and brought herself up to 5-3. Cornet, however, maintained her calm demeanor and smashed the ball finally to win the set. In the third set, Cornet found a break and continued toward the victory with an ace. Serena made a lot of errors and hit a drop shot into the net at match point.
According to Sky Sports, Williams said after her loss, "I know that I can do better. I know that I have the potential to continue to be on top. So hopefully that's what keeps me motivated, I guess. I think this defeat is important to study. Right now I don't really know what I did wrong." She added, "Usually I do. Usually I know I did this, that or that. That's happened to me a few times, but it's fun: it kind of gives you a mission to work on, gives you goals to work towards to see what you can do better."
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