New York, Aug. 20 -- Olympic tennis gold medallist Venus Williams and Reilly Opelka bowed out of the U.S. Open mixed doubles tournament after losing their first round match against Andrey Rublev and Karolina Muchova 4-2, 5-4 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York on Tuesday.

The two Americans were broken early, losing their second service game as Williams served. That was the only opening that Muchova and Rublev needed to take the opening set 4-2, as per Olympics.com.

In the second set, it was even through to three games all. Then, Williams stepped up to serve again and got into a sticky situation early, down 15-40. But, urged on by an adoring New York crowd, Williams and Opelka fought off one break point before...