WHAT HAPPENED

Serena Williams Falls to Heaviest Defeat of Her Career

“I know I can play a zillion times better.”

Serena Williams suffered her worst ever defeat Tuesday in a first-round rout at the hands of Britain’s Johanna Konta at the Silicon Valley Classic. Williams—who just weeks ago reached the Wimbledon final—was completely outplayed, falling to a worst ever 6-1, 6-0 loss. Never before has the greatest women’s tennis player of all time only won one game—she won her serve for the initial game Tuesday, but then lost ever single other game. Her previous worst was at the 2014 WTA finals in Singapore, where she lost 6-0, 6-2 to Simona Halep. “I know I can play a zillion times better so that kind of helps out, too. I have so many things on my mind; I don’t have time to be shocked about a loss that clearly wasn’t at my best right now,” Williams said. Her opponent, Konta, said: “She obviously wasn’t playing at her best level, nowhere near it, and I really just tried to play the match on my terms. I felt I did better than her on the day, but it’s still a humbling experience to be out here with her.”