Serena Williams upset in third round at Wimbledon

Alize Cornet dictated her story, off the cuff. "It is the biggest upset of the tournament," she shouted to a TV microphone after, well, the biggest upset of Wimbledon, so far, her stunning win over Serena Williams.

"Because she is No. 1," said Cornet in accented but quite understandable English. "And she won this a number of times. I can't believe I did it myself."

It is there to believe, a 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, win Saturday over the woman ranked No. 1 and seeded No. 1, and who has won 17 Grand Slam titles, five of them here on the grass courts.

Cornet, 24, of Nice, France, beat Williams in straight sets earlier in the year at Dubai. She kept Serena off balance with drop shots and well-played balls into the corners.

Williams was knocked out of the Australian Open in the fourth round, the French Open last month in the second round and now Wimbledon in the third round. Six weeks from her 33rd birthday, Williams may be on the downside.

Asked what happened, Williams quietly said, "I don't know. I tried. I may have made a few errors too many. I thought I was going pretty well. I worked really hard coming into this event."

When someone wondered if the other women on the tour were closing the gap between themselves and Williams or whether she was not playing up to her potential, she said, "I think everyone in general plays the match of their lives against me. I'm pretty sure the next match will not be the same. The next time I step on a court, I'm going to have to be 100 times better."

The Williams-Cornet match was on Court 1, and because of a steady early afternoon rain play there and all other outside courts was suspended for several hours.

But because there is a movable, translucent roof over Centre Court matches there were played, starting with Rafael Nadal, the No. 2 seed, defeating Mikhail Kukushkin, 6-7, 6-1, 6-1, 6-1. Then Maria Sharapova, who has solid change for a second Wimbledon title, beat Alison Riske, 6-3, 6-0. Finally, seven-time winner Roger Federer whipped Santiago Giraldo, 6-3, 6-1, 6-3.

Federer said in the past he likes playing under the roof. But Nadal implied he had a feeling of claustrophobia.

"When I played the first set," said Nadal, who as Sharapova is going for the French-Wimbledon double, “I said maybe the roof here is no good for me.

"No, it doesn't matter. In general, is true that the roof is great because there is a lot of light coming in. But for me, talking about my personal opinion, is better when I am not in closed places with lights. But I think I played a great match."
So, of course did Cornet, who next faces Eugenie Bouchard on Monday. There is no play Sunday at Wimbledon.

"I don't know how I did it," said Cornet, of the win.

On Friday, Serena's older sister, Venus, also a former Wimbledon champ, who now is 34, lost her third-round match.

Venus said she was coming back, and Serena, in effect, said the same.
"This will be a good one to assess and figure out what I can do better next time," said Serena. "I think this defeat is important to study."

Serena had problems with her serve, normally the best part of her game. "I don't know the percentage of my serve," she said. "I think my first serve was down a little bit. I worked hard on my serve. I don't know why it didn't happen today."