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Venus, Clijsters suffer shock Wimbledon exits

posted by Pretty Tough | Girls Who Are Fun Fierce & Feminine
Tuesday, June 29, 2010 at 6:35pm CDT

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If you think you can’t do something, think again. We’ve all heard advice about believing in yourself and never giving up. Well, case in point.

Today at the Wimbledon Championships, Tsvetana Pironkova and Vera Zvonareva caused huge upsets to set up an unlikely last-four clash. Each was playing a top-seeded player and not expected to advance.

First Bulgaria’s 82nd-ranked Pironkova inflicted a heaviest ever Wimbledon defeat on five-time champion Venus Williams, winning 6-2 6-3 in front of a stunned Court One crowd.The second-seeded Williams, who had reached the Wimbledon final in eight of the past 10 years, was undone by a slew of unforced errors and double faults.

In another surprise, 21st-seeded Zvonareva of Russia rallied to beat two-time U.S. Open winner Kim Clijsters 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 to reach her first Wimbledon semifinal, trashing Clijsters’ hopes of a dream return

After an unpredictable French Open ended with Italian veteran Francesca Schiavone beating Australia’s Samantha Stosur in an unlikely final between two grand slam final debutants, it’s clear that on any given day, anyone can win a championship.

Having never been beyond the second round of a grand slam tournament before this year’s Wimbledon, Pironkova said she had arrived hoping just to win a couple of matches but now stands one match away from a dream final. She becomes the first woman representing Bulgaria to reach a Grand Slam semifinal in the Open era.

Tennis great Billie Jean King once said, “champions keep playing ’til they get it right,” and that’s exactly what these two ladies did in their matches today. Remember that the next time someone tells you can’t do something.