Tennis/French Open: This is not what the Williams family is familiar with. This is not a Williams-type statement, not what the tennis world expects. Within half an hour both Serena and Venus crashed out of Roland Garros yesterday; first the younger sister to Jennifer Capriati and then 23-year-old Venus to Anastasia Myskina, the Russian sixth seed.
As ever when the family leaves the party, the volume tends to fall, the clang and jingle of the entourage leaving town en mass a great relief to those who are left.
For both players to break camp and pack the mules in the same round, and on the same day, in a Grand Slam has never before happened. And in the locker room at least it will be seen as another reminder that the sisters are not the monopolising forces they once were. Everywhere, players will be endorsing the words on the posters seen all around Paris this week - 'impossible is nothing'. Their impregnable veneer has cracked further. Justine Henin-Hardenne, Kim Klijsters and Capriati began the assault, now the young Muscovite has slipped through.
Both sisters will realise that she could have avoided yesterday's irritating statistic, the lacklustre approach from Venus to her match against Myskina both mystifying and ultimately immensely significant and Serena's first serve deserting her when she most needed it in her three-set defeat to 28-year-old Capriati.
"Yeah, I just had a bad day with the serve," said Serena. "I don't think I got any first serves in today, so you know it's hard to win if you can't get a first serve in or a ball. I was an amateur today."
Her forehand, or lack of it, was also given a lashing. "It (her forehand) left. I guess it didn't want to come today. Stayed at the hotel." The great in-built provision at the French Open is that when you lose, you only have to wait a couple of weeks for another crack at a Grand Slam. Both players will have already adjusted their sights as Wimbledon looms.
In a rain-delayed day when umbrellas were constantly up and players alternatively fled or played through light drizzle, the clay courts played heavy and slow. Serena, first on against Capriati, almost introduced controversy to their match on the last point. A long forehand from Capriati to the baseline was called out but no one heard the linesman. Capriati threw herself in the air thinking she had won the match only for the umpire to overrule the linesman and ask for the ball to be played again, giving Williams a second bite at saving the match.
But her game simply wasn't at a high enough level to turn it in her favour, a back-court defensive stroke as she was back-pedalling catching the middle of the net and Capriati celebrating for a second time within 30 seconds.
The match swam around Williams's mistakes and Capriati's physical power and her unwillingness to give Williams angles for her normally punishing groundstrokes, especially off the backhand side. By the end of it, Williams's statistics made gruesome reading in the 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 defeat, her unforced error count rocketing to 45 over the three sets and her first serve count just nudging over the 50 per cent mark.
"I wanted to move her around, not give her a rhythm but not open up the court too much because she likes hitting those angles," said Capriati. "When in doubt just hit hard up the middle. For any players that's difficult."
For Venus, it was one of those occasions when the echo inside her head might have been 'Earth to Venus, Earth to Venus' as the battling Myskina simply wore her down. On break point for Myskina, at 3-3, Williams actually played a volley from outside the baseline to hand her opponent the game. From that she could not recover. She had already squandered the first set 6-3, having given the 22-year-old a 4-0 start. Myskina's well-put-together game was conservative and essentially without a weapon.
Nothing extraordinary came off her racquet but Williams had little to hurt her with on the way back. Again the unforced errors were at danger levels especially off the backhand side.
"I wasn't really on a rhythm. I don't think she beat me today. Normally against this kind of game I'm going to do well against her because she couldn't really hurt me. I suppose next time around I'll definitely be ready," said Venus. Quite.
For the next upset of the day, the partisan crowd were asked to wait for several more rain delays before their heroine also left the 16th quarter. Amelie Mauresmo, who must have believed the draw had opened up for her when Henin-Hardenne was beaten in the second round was subdued by the second Russian to go through to the semi-finals, Elena Dementieva.
The French player, who had won both the German and Italian Opens for a 13-match winning streak, again carried French hopes; Yannick Noah, winner here in 1983, also among the hooting crowd pushing Mauresmo on.
Despite the 22-year-old Russian passing over the opportunity to serve out the match at 5-2, she again broke the third seed in the next game for 6-3, having won the opening set 6-4. Mauresmo saved two match points on her serve, then a third before hitting long on the fourth to concede the set and match. Dementieva meets Paolo Suarez in one semi with Capriati against Myskina in the other.
Suarez advanced when the 17-year-old from Siberia, Maria Sharapova found the level beyond her. Not a natural clay court player, the more suited game of the Argentinian gave the teenager what could only be described as a sharp lesson on the business of winning at Roland Garros. Suarez held Sharapova to 6-1 in the first set before striding onto the second 6-3.
WOMEN'S SINGLES, Quarter-finals: 9-Elena Dementieva (Russia) beat 3-Amelie Mauresmo (France) 6-4 6-3 6-Anastasia Myskina (Russia) beat 4-Venus Williams (U.S.) 6-3 6-4 7-Jennifer Capriati (U.S.) beat 2-Serena Williams (U.S.) 6-3 2-6 6-3 14-Paola Suarez (Argentina) beat 18-Maria Sharapova (Russia) 6-1 6-3.
