Skip to content

Serena Williams' French Open preparations suffer another blow after defeat in Parma

Serena Williams' preparations for the French Open in disarray after suffering a straight-sets defeat to Czech Katerina Siniakova in the second round of the Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma; the former world No 1 has under two weeks preparation time until the start of Roland Garros

Wednesday 19 May 2021 07:01, UK

Serena Williams suffered an early exit at the Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma on Tuesday
Image: Serena Williams suffered an early exit at the Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma on Tuesday

Serena Williams' French Open preparations suffered another blow after being sent crashing out of the Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma by Czech Katerina Siniakova.

The American, who added the tournament to her French Open preparations after accepting a wild-card invitation, was looking to get some much-needed competitive tennis under her belt following an early elimination in Rome last week.

She earned her first victory in more than three months after beating 17-year-old qualifier Lisa Pigato on Monday, but Williams went down to a disappointing 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 to Siniakova in her second-round match.

Williams had a set point at 5-4 in the opener but it was well saved by Siniakova, who then claimed the first break of serve only for the American to fight back.

But it was 68th-ranked Siniakova who was the more consistent in the tie-break, and the Czech won four games in a row to finish the contest to bag her sixth career top 10 win over the top seed.

"I feel amazing. It was a fantastic match," said 25-year-old Siniakova. "I played so good and I'm so happy that I could finish it like this.

"It was a pleasure to share the court with her. The title is still far, but I will be really hard and I will now have the pressure because I defeated such a great player but I enjoy it and I'm happy that I can still continue [the tournament]. I will try to play my best in the next match."

Also See:

Twitter This content is provided by Twitter, which may be using cookies and other technologies. To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies. You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Twitter cookies or to allow those cookies just once. You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options. Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Twitter cookies. To view this content you can use the button below to allow Twitter cookies for this session only.
Enable Cookies Allow Cookies Once
Coco Gauff continued her good form on clay
Image: Coco Gauff continued her good form on clay

Third seed Coco Gauff let a 5-1 lead slip in the second set against Kaia Kanepi but recovered to win 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (9-7) and continue her good form on clay after reaching the semi-finals in Rome.

Second seed Petra Martic was a 6-4 6-2 winner over Varvara Gracheva while former French Open finalist Sara Errani beat Ana Bogdan 7-5 4-6 6-1.

Don't forget to follow us on skysports.com/tennis, our Twitter account @skysportstennis & Sky Sports - on the go! Available to download now on - iPhone & iPad and Android

Around Sky

Sign up for Sky Sports push notifications

Upgrade to Sky Sports to watch every minute of end of season

Sky Data Layer Viewer