Shocked Serena Williams vows to reassert power
World No 1 shrugs off third round defeat at hands of Frenchwoman Cornet in earliest Wimbledon exit since 2005, insisting it's not the end
Defiant Serena Williams insists her shock Wimbledon exit will not herald the end of her reign as the dominant force in the women's game.
Williams crashed to her earliest exit at Wimbledon for nine years as the world No 1 suffered a shock 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 loss against French 25th seed Alize Cornet in the third round.
Top seed Williams, a five-time Wimbledon champion, had reached at least the last 16 in each of her previous seven visits to the All England Club, but Cornet fought back from a set down to end that sequence in two hours and four minutes of gripping drama on Court One.
I thought I was doing pretty decent. I'm going to have to watch this film and see what I can do better and what went wrong
It was the shell-shocked 32-year-old's earliest Wimbledon exit since her loss to Jill Craybas at the same stage in 2005.
Serena could have no complaints about an embarrassing defeat, which continued a disappointing campaign for the 17-time grand slam champion, who has failed to get beyond the fourth round at any of the three majors so far this year.
Serena arrived in south-west London desperate to make amends for her shock first round exit against Garbine Muguruza at the French Open last month, a result which followed her Australian Open fourth round defeat against Ana Ivanovic.
But she is convinced her poor form in 2014 is not a sign that she is finally on the way down after over a decade as the sport's pre-eminent power.
"In Australia, I just couldn't play. And Paris I played really bad. Here I actually thought I played better. I came into the tournament in better form," Serena said.