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Serena Williams falls short in the fourth round at Roland Garros

By Justin Gincauskas

PARIS, FRANCE - JUNE 06: Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan (L) shakes hands with Serena Williams of USA after winning their Women's Singles fourth round match on day eight of the 2021 French Open at Roland Garros on June 06, 2021 in Paris, France. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
PARIS, FRANCE - JUNE 06: Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan (L) shakes hands with Serena Williams of USA after winning their Women's Singles fourth round match on day eight of the 2021 French Open at Roland Garros on June 06, 2021 in Paris, France. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images) /
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Serena Williams’ run at the French Open is over, as she falls to the 21-seed Elena Rybakina 6-3, 7-5 in just one hour and 17 minutes on Sunday in the fourth round.

It was not meant to be for Serena, as she was trying to make the quarterfinals of Roland Garros for the first time since 2016. For Rybakina, this was her first time playing in the fourth round of a Major, as now she will be headed for another first, as she will make her Grand Slam quarterfinal debut on Tuesday.

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Serena did not look herself out there on Sunday, as Rybakina was taking control of majority of the points in the match. Serena was constantly hitting balls short, and Rybakina would make her pay each time.

In the first set, it was all Rybakina, as she won 74% of the points on her first serve and 57% on the second, which were both higher than Serena’s percentages. Rybakina had two break points in the set and was able to convert both times, while Serena had three opportunities to break, but only broke the one time.

In the second set, there was a lot more back and forth, as they each broke serve to start the set. In the end though, Rybakina was just a little better in all the categories, as she once again led in first and second serve points won. Rybakina also hit 12 winners to go along with just seven unforced errors, where Serena would have 11 unforced errors and just nine winners, according to Infosys Match Centre.

Serena would break Rybakina twice in the second set, but that would not be enough as Rybakina would break three times, the last coming at 5-5 in the set. After getting the break to go up 6-5, Rybakina would close it out on her serve, advancing to the quarterfinals of the French for the first time in her young career.

Next up for Rybakina will be Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who beat the 15th seed Victoria Azarenka in three sets earlier Sunday. For Serena, she will have to continue to wait for Major number 24.

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