The wait for the longed-for 24th Grand Slam title continues for tennis superstar Serena Williams.
The 39-year-old American lost on Sunday evening in Paris in the round of 16 against Kazakh Jelena Rybakina 3: 6, 5: 7 and thus missed the quarter-finals.
Rybakina converted her first match point after 77 minutes.
Williams won her last Grand Slam tournament so far in 2017 at the Australian Open.
She was already pregnant then.
Their daughter Olympia was born in September 2017.
Since then, she has tried eleven attempts in vain to set the Australian Margaret Court's record.
Williams never found her rhythm against 21-year-old Rybakina.
The long-time number one played with a thick bandage on her thigh and sometimes seemed clearly handicapped.
Rybakina, on the other hand, played carefree and also kept her nerve in the end.
The Kazakh now faces Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the first quarter-finals of her career.
The 29-year-old prevailed somewhat surprisingly against secret favorite Victoria Asarenka from Belarus 5: 7, 6: 3, 6: 2.
Pavlyuchenkova is back in the quarter-finals for the first time in ten years at Stade Roland Garros.
For the first time ever, the Slovenian Tamara Zidansek qualified for a quarter-finals at a Grand Slam tournament.
The 23-year-old prevailed against Sorana Cirstea from Romania 7: 6 (7: 4), 6: 1.
She will now face the Spaniard Paula Badosa on Tuesday, who won against Marketa Vondrousova from the Czech Republic 6: 4, 3: 6, 6: 2.
German tennis women are no longer there.
Angelique Kerber, Laura Siegemund and Andrea Petkovic were all eliminated in the first round.