Serena Williams was routed 6-0, 6-2 by Simona Halep at the WTA Finals on Wednesday in one of the most one-sided losses of the 18-time Grand Slam champion's career.
The last time Williams managed to win just two games in a WTA Tour or Grand Slam match was in 1998 when she was just 16.
''Embarrassing describes the way I played today,'' Williams said. ''Very embarrassing.''
The loss in the round-robin match snapped Williams' 16-match winning streak at the year-end championships, where she is the two-time defending champion.
''My forehand was off today,'' Williams said. ''It's obviously gone on an early vacation. My serve was at best at the 10-and-under division of juniors.''
The fourth-ranked Halep had never before beaten a player ranked in the top 3. In her previous two matches against Williams, both last year, the Romanian had won a total of seven games.
For a player who was ranked No. 47 two years ago, Wednesday's win over No. 1 Williams represented a new career high.
''It was my best match of my life,'' Halep said. ''I played unbelievable shots. It means a lot this match. At an important time I played really well, and after today my confidence will be more high.''
Halep, runner-up at this year's French Open, beat Eugenie Bouchard in her opening match and moves to 2-0 in the Red Group. Williams slips to 1-1 and will face Bouchard next.
Ana Ivanovic beat Bouchard in Wednesday's other game, winning 6-1, 6-3. Ivanovic is 1-1 and Bouchard fell to 0-2. Going into the last round-robin matches, Halep is all but certain of a semifinal berth, needing to win just one game against Ivanovic, while Bouchard has only a very slim mathematical chance of progressing.
Williams' defeat jeopardized her chances of finishing the year as the top-ranked player. Had she won Wednesday, the only way she could have lost the No. 1 spot is if Maria Sharapova won the title.
Now, just reaching the final may be enough for the Russian, depending on the result of Williams' match against Bouchard on Thursday.
Halep has been careful not to raise her sights too high at this tournament. She remained cautious even after two dominant victories.
''I have confidence I can get to the semifinals,'' Halep said. ''First I have to forget this day, but it will be hard to forget. I am so happy.''
Williams served six double-faults in the opening set and had 36 unforced errors - three times Halep's total. But the key to the result was the performance on break points. Both players had six: Williams took none of them while Halep converted five.
Williams was surprised by Halep's performance, saying ''she has never played like this before.''
''To be frankly honest, I am looking forward to our next meeting because she is going to make me go home, train hard and particularly train for her,'' Williams said.
Ivanovic had lost both her previous matches against Bouchard, at Wimbledon last year and this year's Australian Open quarterfinal. However she cruised through the first set, winning all but two points when getting her first serve into play.
At the end of the set, Bouchard's coach Nick Saviano gave his charge a pep talk, urging her to show more enthusiasm and fight, and the Canadian responded with a more competitive showing in the second frame.
The key moment arrived in the seventh game, when Bouchard saved five break points but double faulted on the sixth, handing Ivanovic the break which she did not relinquish.
The Serb had won only one of her past 20 matches against top-five ranked opponents in WTA and Grand Slam play but felt she was now at the level to challenge the best.
''You want to compete against the best and to be one of them,'' Ivanovic said. ''It's hard work. It's definitely different, different level.
''I felt today I had advantage at different situations because it's her first Championships. Also, this is the first time that she's ranked higher than me in all of our matches, so pressure was on her.''
Bouchard came into this tournament having played only two tour matches in a month due to injuries, and during that post-first set talk with her coach, she even questioned whether she was capable of competing at the required level.
''I still had the belief I can try to work my way into it, which is what I've done in the past,'' Bouchard said. ''You're never 100 percent perfectly prepared for every event. Just unfortunate that it would happen at a big event like this one.
''Routine balls are flying on me and little things like that. That's just consistency, practicing, playing matches, which I haven't done so much.''
In Thursday's matches in the White Group, Carolina Wozniacki meets Agnieszka Radwanska in a clash of two players who won their opening matches, while Sharapova faces Petra Kvitova.
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