Serena's dream of clinching a historic Grand Slam crushes as she loses to Lowly ranked Roberta Vinci

World Number one - Serena Williams

Serena Williams’ dream of clinching a historic calendar Grand Slam turned into a nightmare when she encountered Italy’s Roberta Vinci on Friday.

In one of the greatest upsets in the history of tennis Williams’ hopes were dashed at 2-6 6-4 6-4 . After 26 Grand Slam victories, perhaps a 27th was too big a ask! 

World’s number one seed Williams had survived 11 final sets in Grand Slam matches during 2015, but at the 12th time of asking came up against an opponent who simply grew stronger as the game progressed.

Vinci, a year younger than 33-year-old Williams is ranked world’s number 43 and will play fellow Italian Flavia Pennetta  at Flushing Meadows on Saturday. 

After the nail-biting match Vinci said: “It was an incredible match, I lost the first set, and tried to stay in every point. I tried to stay focused and not think about Serena. It is the best moment of my life.”

But Serena was less forthcoming telling a post-match interviewer: “I don’t want to talk about how disappointing this is for me,” “If you have any other questions I’m open to that.”