Sports News
Williams Sisters and Federer Ousted in Quarters
Serena Williams and Roger Federer probably would have liked the rain to stay.
Federer's bid for his first Olympic singles medal ended Thursday night following a near-four-hour rain delay when he lost to American James Blake.
So began a strange night in the quarterfinals. Serena Williams lost to Elena Dementieva of Russia, and as the clock approached midnight, Venus Williams was beaten by Li Na of China.
The startling sequence came in a tournament that had gone mostly according to form through three rounds. But upsets have long been the norm in Olympic tennis -- since 1988, no top-five player has won the gold medal in men's singles.
No. 4-seeded Serena struggled with her serve early against Dementieva, then staged a rally in the final set. Williams overcame two match points during an 18-point game to hold for 5-3.
But Dementieva held at love in the next game, sealing the victory when Williams pushed a volley wide. The loss came after the U.S. team had won 12 consecutive matches over the past three days.
"There's no reason I should have lost," Williams said. "I missed some key shots that I probably shouldn't have missed. That was that."
Williams remained in contention for a doubles medal and was to play a second-round match later with her sister. They won a gold in doubles in 2000 in Sydney.
A wayward forehand plagued Venus, and she sent one long to lose serve and fall behind 6-5 in the second set. The reigning Wimbledon champion had three more forehand errors in the final game, and when Li hit a service winner on match point, the crowd responded with the biggest roar of the tournament.
"She played the match of her life," Williams said. "Not much I could do about it. So it was definitely a surprise result for me."
The Williamses remain in the race for doubles medals. The sisters won a gold in doubles in 2000 in Sydney, and Venus also won the gold there in singles.
A few contrarians went against the upset trend. No. 2 Rafael Nadal beat Jurgen Melzer 6-0, 6-4 in a match that ended at 1:08 a.m. Nadal's semifinal opponent will be No. 3 Novak Djokovic, who rallied to defeat Gael Monfils 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.
Top-seeded Mike and Bob Bryan of the United States won their quarterfinal match in doubles against Lleyton Hewitt and Chris Guccione of Australia, 6-4, 6-3.
Blake's 6-4, 7-6 (2) victory was a stunner in that he had won only a single set in eight previous matches against Federer. But the top-seeded Federer has been battling a yearlong slump that has left him stalled at 12 major titles, two shy of Pete Sampras' record.
His Wimbledon reign ended last month, and he came to Beijing knowing he would lose the No. 1 ranking to Rafael Nadal next week after 4½ years on top.
Federer's latest defeat means no rematch in Sunday's final against Nadal, who won in epic fashion when they met for the Wimbledon title.
Federer had been seeking his first Olympic medal after losing in the singles semifinals in Sydney and in the second round in Athens. He was scheduled to play a quarterfinal doubles match later Thursday with Swiss partner Stanislas Wawrinka.
The upset was sweet for the No. 8-seeded Blake, a first-time Olympian at 28 and the lone U.S. male to survive the first round of singles.
Matches were delayed for 3 hours, 35 minutes because of rain. With four matches in progress, rain again forced a stop until Friday at 1:15 a.m., with top-ranked Jelena Jankovic about to begin against Dinara Safina -- those matches were then postponed.
Tennis
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