PARIS—It will go down as the worst tennis day in the history of the Williams family, a French flop of monumental proportions with first Serena and then Venus losing in straight sets in the first week of a Grand Slam.

Only one other time at a Slam had both lost on the same day—at the French Open in 2004, where Serena was beaten in three sets by Jennifer Capriati and Venus was defeated in two by Anastasia Myskina .

But that was the quarterfinals. This was the third round, and neither won a set this time.

Serena Williams was subdued and surprisingly conciliatory Friday after Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia won 6-4, 6-4.

Then, just as darkness was setting, Italy's Flavia Pennetta got a short forehand and slammed it into the open court to send Venus Williams down by 7-5, 6-3.
For the first time in the Open era, no U.S. woman has reached the fourth round at Roland Garros. .

While Venus Williams' loss was surprising, it was hardly a shock. She was only 13-6 for the year with her best effort a semifinal loss to her sister at a minor tournament in Banlore, India.

Serena Williams' defeat, however, was perplexing. She came to Roland Garros with 23 wins in 25 matches, and though she pulled out of a quarterfinal match in Rome two weeks ago with a bad back, she seemed recovered.

Srebotnik, a veteran, experienced player who has been as high as No. 24, had one of her better efforts. But she got a lot of help from Williams, whose drop shots were atrocious and whose play inside the service line was equally poor.

With a break point to go up 5-3 in the second set, Williams hit a horrible drop shot wide. Then, on a high ball into the wind that pressed in on her, instead of simply tapping it away for a point, she tried to slam it and fired it into the net.

She also had an easy overhead and botched it. Finally, at 4-4 in the second set, three strokes into the rally on break point, she tried a drop shot from near the baseline. The ball bounced to the net.

Srebotnik then served out the match.

"It just wasn't a good day for our family today," Venus Williams noted. "But we always learn and get more determined after our losses."

From : http://www.chicagotribune.com/