News desk
\nPARIS
\nSerena Williams\u2019 quest for a 24th Grand Slam title ended with her earliest loss at a major tournament in five years.
\nWilliams was outplayed in the third round of the French Open by 20-year-old American Sofia Kenin, who used clean, deep groundstrokes to put together the 6-2, 7-5 upset Saturday.
\n\u201cIn that first set, in particular, she hit pretty much inches from the line, and I haven\u2019t played anyone like that in a long time,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI just saw a player that was playing unbelievable.\u201d
\nIt was the second significant surprise in a matter of hours: Earlier in the day, No. 1 seed Naomi Osaka was eliminated 6-4, 6-2 by 42nd-ranked Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic.
\nThat ended Osaka\u2019s 16-match Grand Slam winning streak, which included titles at the US Open final in September \u2014 when she beat Williams in the final \u2014 and at the Australian Open in January.
\nOsaka was trying to become the first woman to win three consecutive major trophies since Williams grabbed four in a row in 2014-15, a run that was preceded by a second-round loss at Roland Garros and a third-round loss at Wimbledon.
\nSince those early-for-her defeats, Williams had won six of the 14 majors she entered to surpass Steffi Graf\u2019s professional-era record of 22 Grand Slam singles championships. With 23, Williams stands one away from Margaret Court\u2019s mark for the most in tennis history; Court played in both the professional and amateur eras.
\nWilliams, who is 37, sat out four Slams in 2017-18 while she was off the tour to have a baby. Her first major tournament back was last year\u2019s French Open, where she withdrew before a fourth-round match because of a chest muscle injury. She went on to reach the finals of Wimbledon and the US Open, before wasting match points during a quarterfinal loss at the Australian Open.
\nWilliams came to Paris having played only four matches since then; she withdrew from two tournaments because of an injured left knee and another because of illness.
\nWilliams had said she considered not entering the French Open at all.
\n\u201cI\u2019m glad I came, at the end of the day,\u201d she said, \u201cbut it\u2019s been a really grueling season for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
News desk PARIS Serena Williams\u2019 quest for a 24th Grand Slam title ended with her earliest loss at a major tournament in five years. Williams was outplayed in the third round of the French Open by 20-year-old American Sofia Kenin, who used clean, deep groundstrokes to put together the 6-2, 7-5 upset Saturday. \u201cIn that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n