Serena to Sit Out Olympic Mixed-Doubles
Serena Williams will not participate in mixed-doubles action at the 2012 London Olympics, and the two U.S. teams will instead feature four doubles specialists—The Bryan Brothers and Liezel Huber & Lisa Raymond. Raymond & Mike Bryan will be reunited after winning their third Grand Slam title together at Wimbledon 2012.
Serena, who is competing in singles and with Venus Williams in women’s doubles play, intended on playing mixed doubles with either Andy Roddick, John Isner, Bob Bryan or Mike Bryan. Venus Williams, on the comeback trail after her bout with Sjogren’s Syndrome, will likely also sit out mixed-doubles action to focus on teaming with sister Serena in women’s doubles and focusing on singles. At the conclusion of the London Olympics, the 2012 U.S. Open is less than a month away, an event that Venus plan on taking part in.
On Monday in London, both Serena and Venus continued their Olympic success. Serena beat Urszula Radwanska and Venus topped Sara Errani in singles, the 2000 and 2008 Olympic doubles gold medalists and reigning Wimbledon champions took on Romanians Sorana Cirstea & Simona Halep. The serve proved the difference, as the Americans lost just four points when getting their first serves in and were not broken while converting on four of six break point opportunities on their opponents’ serve.
The 6-3, 6-2 win increased the Olympic record of the Williams Sisters to a perfect 11-0 and their grass court record to 39-2. The competition gets tougher on Tuesday, as they square off with fifth-seeded Germans Angelique Kerber & Sabine Lisicki.
"It feels like we just got out of Wimbledon, and we are back at it again," Serena Williams said. "So it felt really good."
