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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 10, 2016)
Page 8 August 10, 2016 S PORTS Williams Sister Olympic Loss First time loss in the doubles tennis match Serena and Venus Williams never had lost an Olympic doubles match until Sunday night, going 15-0 and earning three gold med- als together. Their first-round opponents at the Rio de Janeiro Games, the Czech Republic’s Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova, never had won any sort of match as a pair, at any event. And they had zero wins between them in Olympic doubles competition, going a combined 0-3 with other partners. So it was rather stunning, to say the least, when the Williams sisters were beaten 6-3, 6-4 by Safarova and Strycova in the first round in Rio. “We played terrible,” Serena said, “and it showed in the re- sults.” The American duo was seed- ed No. 1 and coming off a 14th Grand Slam championship togeth- er at Wimbledon a month ago. The Czechs, meanwhile, are unseeded. And get this: They weren’t even supposed to be play- ing together at the Olympics. Stry- cova was a late replacement for Karolina Pliskova, who withdrew from the tournament. Indeed, Strycova and Safarova only had played one match as a team before Sunday — and they lost that, in a Fed Cup match last year. “That’s true, but we are really good friends. We know each oth- er’s games,” said Strycova, never better than a doubles semifinalist at a Grand Slam tournament. “I know what I have to do on the court, and she knows what she has to do.” Safarova is a strong doubles player, and she won two major titles in 2015 with Bethanie Mat- C harles k ruPa /aP Venus Williams, right, discusses their point loss with sister Sere- na in the doubles match against Czech Republic players Barbora Strycova and Lucie Safarova. tek-Sands of the United States. When the Czechs found out who they’d be facing to start things off in Brazil, Safarova said their reaction was: “The draw could be better.” And then she and Strycova started laughing. “But it was a challenge,” Sa- farova continued, “and we love challenges. We had nothing to lose. We stepped out there today and played a great game and de- served to win.” This was the 34-year-old Sere- na’s second match of the day: The 22-time major singles champion won her first-rounder in that event earlier Sunday. The 36-year-old Venus, meanwhile, now has two first-round exits at the Rio Olym- pics, because she was beaten in singles on Saturday night. After that defeat, Venus did not meet with reporters, but U.S. women’s Olympic tennis coach Mary Joe Fernandez said that the seven-time major singles cham- pion had been sick since before she arrived in Brazil. Fernandez also said Venus was dealing with cramping, dehydration and an up- set stomach after Saturday’s loss. In the doubles, played under the lights, when occasional chants of “USA!” would rise from some C ontinued on P age 14 Little League World Series Alpenrose Dairy Hosts youth softball players play Portland for 23rd consecutive time Beginning August 9, young softball players will travel to Portland from around the world to play the Little League Softball World Series, hosted again by Al- penrose Dairy. There are 31 games in the se- ries featuring four world teams from Africa/Europe, Latin Ameri- ca, Asia Pacific and Canada, with the United States represented by the East, West, Southwest, South- east, Central, and Oregon District 4 teams. An opening ceremony will be held on August 9 with games beginning on August 10 and run- ning through the August 17 World Championship. There will be 4-5 games each day taking place be- tween 10:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., with a few games on the 16th and 17th broadcasting on ESPN 2. Admission to the Little League Softball World Series is free and held on the Alpenrose Dairy prem- ises, located at 6149 Southwest Shattuck Road.
