In one of the biggest and most shocking results in the resuming season, Serena Williams lost to Maria Sakkari in the third round of the Western & Southern Open.

For the second night in a row, Serena was stretched to the third set. After winning the first set, she looked comfortable till the tiebreaker of the second set. She surprisingly lost the tiebreaker and from then on Sakkari dominated. Serena was close to getting bageled in the third set. Sakkari won the match 5-7 7-6 6-1.

“I can’t sit here and make excuses” – Serena Williams

In her post-match press conference, she gave the reason for her struggle. It was seen that she was cramping in the last set and she talked about how that affected her physically and mentally.

“Well, yeah, I mean, I started cramping, but mean, I shouldn’t have been in that situation. I don’t think that helps mentally when it’s like you know the match is over and you have won the match, and now your legs were already tired and now they are even more tired, and now it’s even more tired.” Serena said.

“So it’s like I literally put myself in this situation. I gave myself put myself in a bad situation. You know, it’s like dating a guy that you know sucks (laughter). That’s literally what I keep doing out here. It’s like I have got to get rid of this guy. It just makes no sense,” she added.

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Serena expressed her frustration over her fitness and said that she cannot make excuses for her horrid performance. “It’s frustrating. Yes, I was obviously cramping, but that’s no excuse. I can’t sit here and make excuses,” she concluded.

With Serena’s loss, Naomi Osaka is the only player from the top 10 remaining in the draw. Only four top 10 players took part in the tournament. No.1 and No.2 seed Karolina Pliskova and Sofia Kenin lost in their second-round ties. In the coming weeks, one can expect tennis to become more unpredictable than that.