Serena Williams
Serena Williams (C) of the U.S. is helped as she leaves the court after retiring from her second round match against France's Alize Cornet at the Wuhan Open Tennis Tournament in Hubei province September 23, 2014. World number one Williams withdrew from the Wuhan Open on Tuesday after falling ill midway through the first set of her second round match against Cornet. The American top seed was leading 6-5 after breaking Cornet's serve with a smash only for the doctor to come on court at the change over and take the 32-year-old's temperature. Reuters

Serena Williams of the United States of America (USA) suffered a second round defeat at the 2014 Wuhan Open after suffering from a viral illness and withdrawing from the match in just the first set of her match against Alize Cornet of France on Tuesday.

Williams was ahead 6-5 in the opening set before the withdrawal and was supposed to serve for the set before falling to the injury.

Williams’ reason of discontinuing the match was the same cause why she and sister Venus lost in the second round of the women’s doubles competition of the 2014 Wimbledon Championships. Curiously, she also lost to none other than Cornet in the women’s singles competition of the same Grand Slam in a third round match-up.

The Frenchwoman beat Williams, 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals of the 2014 Dubai Tennis Championships in February and then beat women’s tennis world number one, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 at Wimby and now earns a third straight victory after just 11 games against the world no. 1.

Cornet became the first player to beat Serena Williams three times in a year after Justine Henin did it seven years ago.

Serena Williams, who won the last Grand Slam championship of the season, the 2014 US Open, wasn’t the only top seeded player that suffered early elimination in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) event in China; earlier on Tuesday, no. 2 seed Simona Halep of Romania couldn’t avoid the upset defeat against Garbine Muguruza of Spain losing in three sets, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Watch the highlights between Serena Williams and Alize Cornet in the 2nd round of the 2014 Wuhan Open:

(YouTube/WTA DPT)

Now here's the video Serena Williams’ “viral illness” game at the 2014 Wimbledon Championships:

(YouTube/Silvia Briceño Mayorca)

There have been no specific or detailed reports on the real cause of the viral illness suffered by Serena Williams both in Wimbledon and the Wuhan Open.

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