Venus Williams botched routine shots all the way through a 7-6 (2), 6-4 loss to Italy's Flavia Pennetta on Thursday, the first major upset at the Cincinnati Open. She made 38 unforced errors, repeatedly dumping balls into the net or well beyond the baseline.
"I saw her after the match, and she just said she had made a lot of errors," younger sister Serena said. "I was like, 'Wow.' I didn't think I would do the same thing."
Not the same. Worse.
Playing on the same court a few hours later, Serena topped her sister in confounding mistakes. She had 44 unforced errors during a 7-5, 6-4 loss to Austria's Sybille Bammer, who reached the quarterfinals of a tournament for only the third time this year.
"I never played worse in my life," Serena said. "It was really a bad match."
ISNER'S OUT: Greensboro's John Isner lost to Mikhail Youzhny 6-7 (8), 6-1, 6-3 in the round of 16 at the Rogers Cup in Montreal. Andy Roddick fought off 10th-seeded Fernando Verdasco to reach the quarterfinals with a 7-6 (2), 4-6, 7-6 (5) win.
MISCELLANY
OLYMPIC OUSTER : Softball and baseball became the first sports in 69 years to be dropped from the Olympics, beginning with the 2012 London Games. Both lost appeals for reinstatement in 2006 and then set their sights on this year's vote to get back on the program for 2016. Instead, International Olympic leaders voted to recommend that golf and rugby be added to the 2016 Games, while softball, baseball and three other sports were left out.
FSU'S HAMILTON SIGNS DEAL: Florida State has signed men's basketball coach Leonard Hamilton to a new 5-year contract that will pay him $1.5 million a year. The contract includes a $100,000 bonus for reaching the Final Four with another $75,000 for a national championship. There is also a $50,000 bonus for winning the ACC regular season and another $50,0000 for the ACC title.
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