Posted Thursday, August 14, 2008 7:12 AM ET
BEIJING (AP) -- Serena Williams and Roger Federer probably would have liked the rain to stay.
Federer's bid for his first Olympic singles medal ended Thursday night after a near-four-hour rain delay when he lost to American James Blake.
That was the start of an upset parade in the quarterfinals. Serena Williams lost to Elena Dementieva of Russia. And as the clock approached midnight, Venus Williams was beaten by Li Na of China.
The startling sequence came in a tournament that had gone mostly according to form through three rounds. But upsets have long been the norm in Olympic tennis -- since 1988, no top-five player has won the gold medal in men's singles.
No. 4-seeded Serena struggled with her serve early against Dementieva, then staged a rally in the final set. Williams overcame two match points during an 18-point game to hold for 5-3.
But Dementieva held at love in the next game, sealing the victory when Williams pushed a volley wide. The loss came after the U.S. team had won 12 consecutive matches over the past three days.
"It was what it was," Williams said as she left the court. "It hasn't sunk yet."
Williams remained in contention for a doubles medal and was to play a second-round match later with her sister. They won a gold in doubles in 2000 in Sydney.
A wayward forehand plagued Venus, and she sent one long to lose serve and fall behind 6-5 in the second set. The reigning Wimbledon champion had three more forehand errors in the final game, and when Li hit a service winner on match point, the crowd responded with the biggest roar of the tournament.
Blake's 6-4, 7-6 (2) victory was a stunner in that he had won only a single set in eight previous matches against Federer. But the top-seeded Federer has been battling a yearlong slump that has left him stalled at 12 major titles, two shy of Pete Sampras' record.
His Wimbledon reign ended last month, and he came to Beijing knowing he would lose the No. 1 ranking to Rafael Nadal next week after 4½ years on top.
Federer's latest defeat means no rematch in Sunday's final against Nadal, who won in epic fashion when they met for the Wimbledon title.
Federer had been seeking his first Olympic medal after losing in the singles semifinals in Sydney and in the second round in Athens. He was scheduled to play a quarterfinal doubles match later Thursday with Swiss partner Stanislas Wawrinka.
The upset was sweet for the No. 8-seeded Blake, a first-time Olympian at 28 and the lone U.S. male to survive the first round of singles.
Top-seeded Mike and Bob Bryan of the United States advanced to the semifinals in doubles by beating Lleyton Hewitt and Chris Guccione of Australia 6-4, 6-3.
SOURCE: http://www.nbcolympics.com/tennis/news/newsid=213754.html
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Watching the tennis ball while playing tennis is a bit of a wrong conception, or perhaps it just a shortcut for saying: look at the tennis ball when you tennis raquet is actually striking the ball. Instead many tennis players only watch the flight of the ball as it comes toward them.
Watching the flight of the ball works fairly well much of the time especially if the tennis ball comes to you in a straight line. It does not work if the ball has topspin, sidespin, underspin, or if the flight of the ball is curving due to the wind or slanting of the court. In addition, it does not work if it hits a crack or a dip or a bit of dirt. So, unless you are playing indoors on a brand new tennis court that has just been cleaned, against a player who only hits clean flat shots, you are going to have problems producting your long powerful strokes.
For more information on Tennis tips and training visit Marin Tennis Club
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