WIMBLEDON, England — Five-time champion Venus Williams lost in the opening round of Wimbledon for the first time since 1997, falling 6-1, 6-3 to Elena Vesnina of Russia today.

Williams had lost in the second round at the French Open, her first Grand Slam action since Aug. 29, 2011, at the U.S. Open; two days later, she pulled out of her second-round match at that tournament, revealing that she’d been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease.

The unseeded Williams lost the first five games today. She put up more of a fight in the second set but was broken in the sixth game when she missed a forehand. Vesnina clinched the match with a service winner.

Williams was making her 16th straight appearance at Wimbledon and had not lost in the first round since her debut.

tunapawizzy: So? We should go and jump inside red sea? Hissssss nonsense

tunapawizzy: So? We should go and jump inside red sea? Hissssss nonsense

femzy: [size=13pt]Quite sad she crashes out.... A lot of Psychological issues i reckon and @ 32 what do you expect [/size]

Egba girl:

Heard and read she has some kind of illness (autoimmune disease) and that's prolly what's taking a toll on her. Here's a link to an article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/sports/tennis/venus-williams-battling-disease-back-at-french-open.html

afam4eva: This is really embarassing. Venus Williams has lost steam and should think of retiring. Her sister, Serena still has it in her and has a couple of years to go.

webmanlag:


Serena? the only thing she got left is that fat arse...

femzy:

[size=13pt]With the no of gals that are playing fine on the circuit; i doubt she has any chance to clinch a title.[/size]

afam4eva:
Apart from her arse, she still can still play good tennis. She won a major compeition some months back and got to the Quater/Semi final of the french open.

webmanlag:

major competition in terms of grand slams or ATP 1000? The title she won last was the Madrid Open this year. I have watched tennis for at least 20 years and I do not believe Serena can win another grand slam. However, she has 13 slams so her place in tennis history is secured. She just doesn't have the physical prowess over the rest of the field that she used to have. That goes for Venus as well, both of them don't have any consistency to win big titles. By the way, Serena lost in the first round of the French open to unseeded Virginie Razzano 6-4,6-7,3-6.

Andro Blaze:

Probably to hasty with this comment.