SERENA WILLIAMS won just two games Wednesday as she crashed to her heaviest defeat in 16 years and raised concerns over a knee injury that could dash her hopes at the WTA Finals.

    The 18-time Grand Slam champion was a shadow of her dominant best as she slumped 6-0, 6-2 to Romania’s Simona Halep, her biggest loss since she was 16 and without a tournament win to her name.

    The seismic defeat ended a run of 16 straight victories at the year-ending tournament for the 2001, 2009, 2012 and 2013 champion, whose bid for a title hat trick is now hanging in the balance.

    Elsewhere in the Red Group round robin, Ana Ivanovic maintained her semifinal hopes with a 6-1, 6-3 win over an out-of-sorts Eugenie Bouchard.

    “My forehand was off today again — I guess it went on an early vacation,” Williams said. “Lord knows my serve was as well.

    “My serve was at best in the 10-and-under division in juniors,” she added. “Yeah, it was actually embarrassing I think describes the way I played. Yeah, very embarrassing.”

    Given the high profile of the season finale in Singapore, it was a career low for the 33-year-old who had not been beaten so soundly since losing 6-1, 6-1 to Joannette Kruger in Oklahoma City in 1998.

    She signaled that she was a long way from recovering from the left knee injury that forced her to withdraw from the China Open in Beijing earlier this month.

    “Oh, God no. I’m definitely not 100 percent okay. I’m just here playing, but I’m not nowhere near 100,” she said, when asked about her injury.

    “That has nothing to do with today’s match. I think Simona played really well and the best match of her career.”

    Williams will now have to fight to reach the semifinals in her final round robin match against Bouchard, with Red Group potentially coming down to calculations of sets and games won.(SD-Agencies)