By Erik Gudris | Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Few may never have heard of 20-year-old Jana Cepelova before Tuesday night. But the young Slovakian announced herself loud and clear after upsetting two-time defending champion and World No. 1 Serena Williams at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston.

In a first time meeting for both, the No. 78 ranked Cepelova started off breaking Williams in the opening game of their second round match. While slow starts for Williams are nothing new, what wasn't expected was that 17 minutes later Cepelova would lead 5-0.

Williams, urged on by the crowd, finally got on the board in the next game and slowly started to find the groove on her shots. Though climbing back to 4-5, Williams still could not impose herself on Cepelova who hung tough in the rallies. Cepelova fended off a break point against her while serving for the set.

Chasing down a drop shot on set point, Cepelova then hit a fine passing shot to close out the set 6-4.

Falling behind an early break in the second set, Williams then called for a medical time out to have her left thigh strapped. Returning to the court, Williams hit a swing forehand volley winner a few points later to level things at 2-all. Cepelova didn't waver though as she stayed even with Williams.

Mixing up pace with drop shots, Cepelova tried to keep a muted Williams off balance. Williams soon overcooked another forehand to give Cepelova a break lead for 4-3. Williams would force Cepelova to eventually serve for the match at 5-4.

Not looking overawed by the moment, Cepelova found herself with two set points. Williams saved one with a big return. But Cepelova forced Williams to hit wide on the next one. With that, Cepelova raised her arms in disbelief and in triumph after pulling off the 6-4, 6-4 win.

This result ends Williams' 28-match win streak on clay that stretches back to her last loss on the surface at Roland Garros to Virginie Razzano.

Giving full credit to her opponent afterwards, Williams cited a need to take a break after several years of non-stop playing.

"I'm going to go on a vacation, for sure. I'm like I definitely I need some time off, so I'm going to kind of take a deep breath, and I haven't had time, even in the off season, I went straight to training and there's just been so much in a couple several years, so I just need to take a deep breath and regroup, and I think actually it'll really help me for the rest of the clay court season," Williams said.

While disappointed that she couldn't defend her title at an event she enjoys playing, Williams tried to look at the positives.

"Everything happens for a reason. I feel like I can always look at the positive and see what I can achieve after this. So I'm excited. I feel like I now have time to just take a breath and the break that I really needed to take and go from there."

On her part, Cepelova admitted she didn't know what to think at first after going up 5-0 in the opening set. But soon she realized she could find a way to win.

"I was "what?"," Cepelova said when asked what was going through her head just then. "But I was thinking I want to focus every point and every game. I was thinking I cannot win but I want to win every game. I was a little bit nervous but then I take it."

Other winners on the day included Eugenie Bouchard, Daniela Hantuchova and Sam Stosur.