End of the road for The Sisters Williams

Serena, winner of that 2002 final, was beaten by fellow American Jennifer Capriati 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 in a tense match on centre court. Injured for much of the last year, Serena last missed out on a Grand Slam semi-final at Wimbledon in 2001.

“That wasn’t professional? I was an amateur today. I am so disappointed I could not at least get to the semis, but what can I say? I guess we will both be on the same flight tomorrow,” Serena said, about herself and fourth seed Venus who lost an error-strewn match 6-3, 6-4 to Anastasia Myskina of Russia.

Myskina, beaten in the Australian Open quarters in January, will now face seventh seed Capriati in her first Grand Slam semi-final.

In the other half of the draw, Argentine Paola Suarez thrashed Maria Sharapova of Russia 6-1, 6-3. She will face ninth seed Elena Dementieva of Russia, who caused a huge upset by beating third seeded Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo 65-4, 6-3.

Capriati, French champion in 2001, was delighted with her victory over Serena. “It’s about time, frankly, that I won one of these matches,” she grinned. “It wasn’t the greatest quality match. We were both nervous but I just played a little bit better than she did.”

It was not hard. Serena never got going. She returned to the circuit only in March after an eight-month knee injury lay-off and signs of rust have been evident ever since.

While she took to the court looking every bit a champion — resplendent in a pink cropped-top with a brilliant diamond flashing in her navel — her on-court craft could never live up to her showmanship.

Both players started tentatively and rather than the nerves settling, they got worse as the rain-interrupted match wore on.

Having lost eight times in a row to Serena, Capriati beat her in the semi-finals of the Rome Masters in May. When she took the first set it looked like a straightforward victory was on the cards but Capriati fell to pieces, handing the second set to Serena without so much as a whimper. (Reuters)