Olympic-Sized Upsets In Tennis

There were a few pretty big upsets in the first round of the Olympic tennis tournament. It started with Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium upsetting Venus Williams in a third-set tiebreak. That match showed that the Olympic court was incredibly slow and shots by Venus that normally might been winners were tracked down by Flipkens here. And Flipkens was constantly making Venus generate all the power which resulted in way too many unforced errors. It was a marathon match but those errors turned out to be the difference.

The next day, the Williams sisters lost their opening doubles match to Czech Republic’s Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova by the score of 6-3, 6-4. Venus was still out of sorts due to a reported illness and her prior three-set loss in singles and the sisters really did not play very well. But Safarova and Strycova are both accomplished doubles players although they usually play with other partners, not as a team. Even so, it was a pretty stunning upset as the Williams sisters had never lost an Olympic doubles match. Serena Williams will still be the odds-on favorite to win the singles, however, although the pressure on her will probably be a little bit greater now.

Finally, last night, Novak Djokovic was defeated by Juan Martin Del Potro 7-6, 7-6, in a truly classic match. Del Potro is easily a top-ten player but has been fighting injuries for the last few years, hence his poor ranking that had him playing Djokovic in the first round. Unfortunately for Novak, Del Potro is healthy and in the same form that won him the 2009 US Open. It is a credit to Djokovic’s tenacity and defense that both sets went to tiebreakers as Del Potro was clearly the dominant player on this night. Djokovic never had a break point opportunity the entire match while Del Potro was never able to capitalize on the couple of handful of opportunities he had. Once again, the slow Olympic court played a factor as it gave Del Potro time to get in perfect position to hit his devastating forehand. Djokovic was forced to continually hit to the Del Potro backhand because virtually every booming Del Potro forehand ended the point. It was an incredible display of awesome power from the forehand side.

What had started out as a dream season for Djokovic has turned sour in the last month. After finally winning the French Open and completing the career Grand Slam, he seemed on his way to possibly winning the calendar Grand Slam as well. But a disappointing loss to Sam Querrey of all people at Wimbledon put that idea to rest. But he still came into the Olympics as the clear favorite, especially with Nadal not at 100% and Federer not competing at all, both due to injury. And, by adding the Olympic gold to his career Grand Slam, he would join only Andre Agassi and Rafa Nadal as winners of the Golden Slam. But it was not meant to be. It will be interesting to see how this summer’s defeats effect Novak when he play the US Open where, once again, he will still be the favorite.