PARIS — Defending women’s champion Serena Williams and her sister, seven-time tennis major winner Venus Williams, lost at the French Open Wednesday as former champion Roger Federer and second-seeded Novak Djokovic advanced.
Taylor Townsend, an American ranked 205th making her Grand Slam tennis debut, upset the highest-ranked Frenchwoman today to reach the third round at Roland Garros in Paris.
Top-seeded Serena Williams’s 6-2, 6-2 loss to 35th-ranked Garbine Muguruza of Spain means the top two women’s seeds lost before the third round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time since the professional era began in 1968. No. 2 Li Na of China was upset Tuesday by France’s Kristina Mladenovic.
“I’m super disappointed and it’s hard,” Williams, 32, said in a news conference. “I know for a fact I can work harder. I know for a fact I can play so much better than what I did today.”
Williams lost her serve six times and made 29 unforced errors. It was her earliest defeat in one of the sport’s four majors since she was upset in the first round of the 2012 French Open by 111th-ranked Virginie Razzano. Williams has won 17 major singles titles, one shy of Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova.
Muguruza, who had 18 errors and 12 winners, told reporters that Williams said to her at the net at the end of the match that “if I continue playing like this, I can win the tournament. I said, ‘I will try, I will try.’”
Williams’ loss opened up the draw for former champion Maria Sharapova of Russia, who beat Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova 7-5, 6-2. The seventh-seeded Sharapova had been on track to play Williams in the quarterfinals. Sharapova hasn’t defeated Williams since 2004, including a defeat in last year’s title match at Roland Garros.
Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska, who at No. 3 is the highest women’s seed remaining, beat Czech Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 6-4.
Townsend, a former junior world No. 1 who is playing in her first major as a pro, beat France’s No. 1 player, Alize Cornet, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 as darkness fell in Paris.
“It was such a tough match,” Townsend, 18, said in a courtside interview after doing a victory dance. She led 5-1 in the final set before squandering three match points and letting Cornet back into the match.
Townsend created headlines at the 2012 U.S. Open, when the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Tennis Association wasn’t paying for Townsend’s tournament appearances until she concentrated on getting in better shape. That led to criticism at the time from Serena Williams.
“The sky is the limit, one match, one ball at a time,” Townsend said Wednesday, when asked how far she could go in the tournament.
Earlier Wednesday, No. 29 Venus Williams was beaten 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 by Slovak teenager Anna Schmiedlova.
In men’s play, Serbia’s Djokovic needed 92 minutes to ease past Jeremy Chardy of France 6-1, 6-4, 6-2. Djokovic, who reached the final in 2012, is trying to win his first French Open, the only Grand Slam title he lacks.
Federer moved to the third round with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 defeat of Argentina’s Diego Sebastian Schwartzman, ranked No. 109. The fourth-seeded Swiss is trying to capture his second French Open title after winning in 2009.
“I didn’t feel relaxed for the entire match,” Federer said in a news conference. “I always felt he had a little bit of an upper hand from the baseline. I feel he was doing a really good job being aggressive and making good plays.”
Also advancing to the third round were No. 10 John Isner of the United States, unseeded American Steve Johnson, No. 6 Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, No. 8 Milos Raonic of Canada and No. 13 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France.