Olympic Women's Tennis 2016: Round-of-16 Results, Scores and Reaction
Madison Keys became the first woman to qualify for Round 4 of the 2016 Summer Olympics tennis tournament in Rio de Janeiro, beating Carla Suarez Navarro in three sets on Tuesday.
The two served up an exciting, back-and-forth match, with Keys using her raw power to make the difference in the final set.
Garbine Muguruza suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Monica Puig, while Serena Williams will take on Elina Svitolina later on Tuesday.
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Here's a look at Tuesday's results:
| Madison Keys (USA) [7] bt. Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP) [9] | 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 |
| Laura Siegemund (GER) bt. Kirsten Flipkens (BEL) | 6-4, 6-3 |
| Petra Kvitova (CZE) [11] bt. Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) | 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 |
| Monica Puig (PUR) bt. Garbine Muguruza (ESP) [3] | 6-1, 6-1 |
| Daria Kasatkina (RUS) bt. Sara Errani (ITA) | 7-5, 6-2 |
| Johanna Konta (GBR) [10] bt. Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) [8] | 3-6, 7-5, 7-5 |
| Angelique Kerber (GER) [2] bt. Samantha Stosur (AUS) [13] | 6-0, 7-5 |
| Elina Svitolina (UKR) [15] bt. Serena Williams (USA) [1] | 6-4, 6-3 |
Recap
Keys started her Round 3 match against Suarez Navarro well, grabbing an early break. And while she allowed the Spanish star to break right back and tie things up at 2-2, she had the upper hand in the rallies from early on.
The youngster kept the exchanges relatively short and did lots of damage with her serve, limiting Suarez Navarro's opportunities to counter. Tennis writer Jake Davies thought the match didn't live up to some of their previous encounters:
Just one more break was all Keys needed to wrap up the first set, but Suarez Navarro reversed the roles in the second, breaking early to seize momentum.
The 27-year-old started placing her shots a little deeper, forcing Keys to be more conservative with her strokes, and the tactic worked brilliantly. She pushed her advantage to 4-1 and 5-2 before eventually finishing the job on her own serve.
Jon Wertheim of Sports Illustrated noticed she got into a bit of trouble along the way, however:
Keys took the first game of the third set and broke serve in the second, but Suarez pulled it back in the fifth game, setting up a tense finale.
The decisive break came in the eighth game, with Keys overpowering her opponent, and she served out the contest in the following game.
Kirsten Flipkens' Cinderella run finally came to an end against Laura Siegemund, as the unheralded German finally ended her momentum.
Flipkens had already beaten Venus Williams and Lucie Safarova, but she never found her rhythm on Tuesday and lost her calm with the umpire after several line calls didn't go her way. Siegemund will play Puig in the next round.
Puig dropped just two games on her way to a win over Muguruza, who never found her rhythm and contributed to what was a dreadful day for Spanish tennis, per sports writer Chris Goldsmith:
Petra Kvitova dropped the first set of her match with Ekaterina Makarova but bounced back to take the following two, continuing her fine form. Russian teenager Daria Kasatkina also booked her spot in the next round, beating Sara Errani.
Elsewhere, Angelique Kerber battled through a few brief struggles to put away Samantha Stosur in straight sets as the night's action progressed.
After blanking the Australian 6-0 in the first set, Kerber appeared primed to close out her foe in short order during the match's second frame. However, a trip to the quarterfinals didn't come without a few tense moments.
After double-faulting on match point, Stosur evened the second set at 5-5 to apply some serious pressure on the German.
But in stoic fashion, Kerber stood tall and won two consecutive games to close out the stanza and advance to a quarterfinal showdown against Johanna Konta.
According to WTATennis.com, Kerber is 1-0 overall against Konta, with the single showdown coming at this year's Australian Open. Kerber emerged victorious in straight sets.
Finally, in the day's most stunning result, No. 1 seed and defending Olympic gold medalist Serena Williams crashed out of singles play with a 6-4, 6-3 loss to Ukraine's Elina Svitolina.
Tennis Now on Twitter noted Serena was "gesturing towards an ailing shoulder after making an overhead smash in set two," and she simply didn't look right throughout the match as she failed to rip shots with standard velocity.
WTA Insider on Twitter explained Williams has been bothered by shoulder problems of late:
In the surest sign of her inability to stick with Svitolina, Williams double-faulted five times in a single game during the second set as she allowed the Ukrainian to nab a break point and distance herself as the match drew toward a conclusion.
Now Svitolina will square off against Kvitova in the quarters. Kvitova owns a 2-1 edge in their overall series, but Svitolina emerged victorious at their last meeting in Cincinnati two years ago.
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