Serena and Venus Williams lost for the first time

in an Olympics doubles match as their hopes of

winning a fourth successive title were

surprisingly ended in the first round at Rio 2016.

The American top seeds lost 6-3 6-4 to Czech

Republic's Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova,

who were only paired together at late notice.

Strycova replaced Karolina Pliskova, who

withdrew because of Zika concerns.

It was the Williams' first defeat in 16 Olympic

matches playing together.

The sisters won gold together at Sydney 2000,

Beijing 2008 and London 2012, but did not

compete at Athens 2004 after Serena pulled out

through injury.

"We played terrible and it showed in the results,"

said 22-time Grand Slam singles title winner

Serena.

Venus, 36, also lost in the singles on Saturday,

with US women's Olympic tennis coach Mary Joe

Fernandez saying afterwards the seven-time

major champion had been sick since before she

arrived in Brazil.

Serena, 34, can still become the first woman to

win two Olympic singles titles after the London

2012 gold medallist beat Australia's Daria

Gavrilova earlier on Sunday.

But Venus, who won the individual title at Sydney

2000, saw her hopes of a fifth gold ended by

Safarova and Strycova.

Neither of the unseeded Czech pair had previously

won an Olympic doubles match, also losing their

only previous outing together in a Fed Cup match

last year.

"It was what it was," Serena said. "We have a

chance to compete for our country and did the

best that we can. We had a blast out there.

"I wouldn't say it was devastating. It was a lot of

fun and we will always remember these moments

and these matches.

"At the end of the day, I think that's what matters

most. BBC

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