Serena Williams and Venus Williamshave lost an Olympic doubles match as partners for the first time. They lost in the opening round of the Rio de Janeiro Games to Czech Republic's Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova by 6-3, 6-4.


Three-time doubles champions and gold medalists, entered Sunday's match with a 15-0 career record in the Olympics, winning the gold medal in women's doubles every time they entered the event: in 2000, 2008 and 2012.

"We played terrible, and it showed in the results. I wasn't playing the way I needed to play. I wasn't crossing the way I need to cross," Serena said.

Neither Safarova nor Strycova, has ever won an Olympic doubles match, going a combined 0-3 with other partners. They are even unseeded in Rio while the Williams sisters are seeded No. 1 in Rio.

Strycova and Safarova only had played one match as a team before Sunday night and they lost that match which was in a Fed Cup match last year.


After that defeat, which was her second one in the Olympics, Venus did not meet with reporters, because according to the U.S. women's Olympic tennis coach Mary Joe Fernandez, the seven-time major singles champion had been sick since before she arrived in Brazil, AP reports.