Serena Williams' 17 Match Winning Streak Ends In Berlin

Serena Williams' 17 Match Winning Streak Ends In Berlin
By Tripp Mateschitz, Lawn Tennis Correspondent, Posted: Friday, May 9, 2008 1:30pm CST USA

Serena Williams' 17 Match Winning Streak Ends In Berlin, Dinara Safina

Photo by Sascha Schuermann/AFP/Getty Images

BERLIN, GERMANY (lawntennismag.com) - At the Qatar Telecom German Open at Berlin Friday, 5th seeded Serena Williams of the USA lost her first match since January.

Williams led in the quarterfinal third set 4-3 in the tiebreaker before consistent play from her opponent and her own errors knocked her out of the game.

"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.