Serena Williams loses to Nadia Podoroska in 1000th career match

Disappointments continue for Serena Williams who failed to win her 1000th career match at the Rome Masters.

It was supposed to be a glorious day for Serena Williams, a day where she would celebrate her legendary milestone with a victory. But it wasn't, as Serena Williams lost to Nadia Podoroska in straight sets. It was not a good match by Serena but Podoroska is no slouch of a player especially on clay.

The Argentinian reached the Roland Garros semifinals last year and today she displayed a lot of what enables her to do that. For Serena, this was her 1st match on clay this year but in the end, she was not good enough. Struggles began early for Williams who had to save a break point in her first service game.

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She lost her serve in her next service game but was able to pull it back immediately. She lost her serve again at 4-4 giving Podoroska a chance to win the first set but once again she was able to pull it back. In the end, we ended up in a tiebreak where Podoroska jumped out to a 5-2 lead before Serena once again pulled it back to 5-5.

She did not have enough to overturn the result and Podoroska was able to escape with a narrow 8-6 win. The 2nd did not bring any better play from Serena. She was able to stay in the match but Podoroska ultimately took a lead 5-2. When she served for the match, however, she completely collapsed giving Serena another chance.

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However, it was simply not meant to be as the American was simply too shaky far too often which allowed Podoroska to use her chances which she did. She used 4 of 6 break points Serena allowed her to take down the tennis legend in a little under two hours of play.

For Serena, it was a solid effort but flashes of brilliancy were not enough to overcome a very solid Podoroska on clay.

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Terrific from the Argentine 💪 🇦🇷 @nadiapodoroska takes the opener in a tight tiebreak! #IBI21

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