2013 AUS OPEN: Williams Sisters Lose To #1 Seed

At the 2013 Australian Open yesterday Venus and Serena Williams lost 3-6 7-6(1) 7-5 to the #1 seed in women's doubles, Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci despite being up 6-3 5-3 and 6-3 6-5 with both Serena and Venus each serving for the match and getting broken. After playing a horrendous tiebreak the two went up 3-0 in the 3rd set and then proceeded to lose 4 games in a row. They stemmed the tide at 4-all but their play for the entire match was sub-par, with Serena's movement questionable at times. Venus' serving was particularly atrocious and one memorable fault bounced on her side of the net (and never even hit the net); she eventually double-faulted on breakpoint down at 5-all to hand the Italian team the opportunity to serve out the match, which they did efficiently and promptly.

Hopefully, the result (and the potential re-injury to her right ankle) will not impact Serena's play in the Australian Open singles quarterfinals against fellow American Sloane Stephens tonight.