TENNIS: Serena Williams Loses To Alize Cornet Cornet At Wimbledon

Five-time champion Serena Williams suffered her earliest Wimbledon defeat since 2005 as she lost to France's Alize Cornet in the third round. Cornet, ranked 24th, won 1-6 6-3 6-4 on Court One to claim her second victory of the year over the world number one.

Cornet has only reached the fourth round at a Grand Slam once before, in Australia five years ago
It is only the third time in 15 visits to Wimbledon that Williams has lost so early. She has not been past the fourth round of a Grand Slam in 2014. Cornet, 24, had never before beaten a top-20 player at a Grand Slam.

"I just cannot believe it," she told BBC Sport. "Three years ago I couldn't play on grass, I was so bad, but now I have beaten Serena, the world number one on her own court.


"I have to get used to it and focus on the next match because the tournament is not over for me. I am not sure how I did it but just with the heart and the help from the crowd."
Williams said: "She kept her unforced errors really low. I made a few errors too many. She was going for her shots. She played really well."

Cornet did have a confidence-boosting win over Williams in Dubai earlier this year to call upon, but it still came as a major shock to see her grab the initiative and dominate the closing stages.

Williams, 32, had looked edgy in the opening exchanges, making five errors and two double faults before the rain came at 1-1 to force the players off for several hours.

A run of five straight games on the resumption suggested the American had overcome whatever had been troubling her earlier, but the feisty Cornet came battling back.

After failing to serve out the set at 5-1, she converted at the second attempt and was pushing hard at the start of the third against an uncertain Williams.