LONDON

Serena Williams sounded far less surprised than pretty much anyone else that her 34- match winning streak ended.

At Wimbledon, where she was seeded No. 1 and is a fivetime champion.

Despite leading 3-0 and 4-2 in the final set. In the fourth round. Against someone seeded 23rd.

“Come on, guys, let’s get with it. She’s excellent,” Williams said. “She’s not a pushover.”

That clearly is true about Sabine Lisicki. Still, it was surprising to see Williams lose after going unbeaten — and generally looking unbeatable, until slumping down the stretch and bowing out 6-2, 1- 6, 6-4 Monday against Lisicki by dropping the last four games.

Her collapse, and the demise of the longest winning streak in women’s tennis since 2000, fit right in at this unpredictable Wimbledon, where up is down, where seedings and pedigree mean nothing whatsoever.

“Didn’t play the big points good enough,” Williams said. “I didn’t do what I do best.”

Instead, Williams was passive in crunch time and essentially let Lisicki do what she does best: dictate points quickly with big serves, powerful returns and pinpoint groundstrokes. If that sounds familiar, could be because it’s the formula Williams uses to dominate her sport. Except on this breezy afternoon, Lisicki compiled a 10-7 edge in aces, a 35-25 lead in winners, and broke Williams five times.

Two days before facing Williams, Lisicki insisted she did not consider it an impossible task.

“You have to play your best to beat her, that’s for sure,” Lisicki said Saturday, after advancing to the fourth round, “but, you know, everybody’s (a) human being.”

The German’s game is built for grass. Merely 16-15 at the other three Grand Slam tournaments, Lisicki is 17-4 at the All England Club. She reached the semifinals at Wimbledon in 2011, and is into her fourth quarterfinal.

Only one day into the tournament’s second week, Williams joined quite a list of those already out: Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Victoria Azarenka and Sharapova — all major title winners, all former No. 1s, all gone by the end of Day 3.

“This,” summed up 17thseeded Sloane Stephens, “has been a crazy Wimbledon.”

Sure has. No U.S. men reached the third round, something that last happened 101 years ago, and Williams’ departure made Stephens the lone American singles player left. The 20-year-old Stephens’ first quarterfinal at the All England Club was to come Tuesday against No. 15 Marion Bartoli of France, the 2007 runner-up.

On Wednesday, the men’s quarterfinals on the draw’s top half are No. 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia, a six-time Grand Slam titlist and the only remaining past Wimbledon winner, against No. 7 Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, the 2010 runner-up; and No. 4 David Ferrer of Spain against No. 8 Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina, the 2009 U.S. Open champion.

On the bottom half, it will be No. 2 Andy Murray of Britain, the London Olympic gold medalist and 2012 U.S. Open winner, against 54thranked Fernando Verdasco of Spain; and No. 24 Jerzy Janowicz against his Davis Cup teammate and pal, 130thranked Lukasz Kubot, in a match between the first two Polish men to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal since 1980.