"I'm excited I lost here and not in Roland Garros," Williams said. "The pressure is off me."
Williams' loss to 22 year old Dinara Safina of Russia ended her impressive 17 match win streak. The final
score for the match 6-2, 1-6, 7-6(7-5).
"I'm excited I lost here and not in Roland Garros," Williams said. "The pressure is off me."
Williams started the match playing her normal aggressive game to take set one 6-2. In the second set Safina however started to step up
her game, and unleashed a tactic of attacking the Williams backhand; the same tactic Safina had used yesterday to upset world number one
Justine Henin of Belgium.
"I couldn't concentrate, I started the match like, 'I won yesterday,' so that was good," Safina said. "Then I started believing I could
win. I just had to be more aggressive."
Safina went ahead in set two 5-0 before Williams held on to win her lone game of the set.
Williams had been 7-0 in three set matches this year and led 5-4 and 6-5 in set three today but was unable to close the match out. A
Williams forehand wide on matchpoint number two sealed the upset.