Williams sisters bow out of Wimbledon

With Wozniacki also departing, the carnage did not extend to the men’s singles although Nadal suffered an injury scare.

Venus Williams
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Nadal defeated Del Potro 7-6 , 3-6, 7-6 , 6-4 after squandering two set points in the 10th game [Reuters]

It took less than two brutal hours at Wimbledon to disprove the theory that Serena and Venus Williams could march back to continue their domination of the grasscourt slam having hardly swung their rackets in anger for months.

First defending champion Serena was bundled out in the fourth round 6-3 7-6 on Monday by livewire Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli then five-times champion Venus was destroyed 6-2 6-3 by Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova.

World number one Caroline Wozniacki also departed but the Manic Monday carnage did not extend to the men’s singles although defending champion Nadal suffered a major injury scare during a scintillating late evening win over Juan Martin del Potro in front of a captivated Centre Court crowd.

Nadal won 7-6 3-6 7-6 6-4 while six-times champion Roger Federer lost his first set of the tournament in beating Russian Mikhail Youzhny as home flag bearer Andy Murray and world number two Novak Djokovic sauntered through in straight sets.

Australian Bernard Tomic continued his memorable run, the 18-year-old thrashing Belgium’s Xavier Malisse to become the youngest player to reach the men’s quarter-finals since 1986.

Wozniacki’s shock 1-6 7-6 7-5 loss to Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova came in the immediate aftermath of the double Williams bombshell and left 2004 champion Maria Sharapova as the clear favourite for the title after the Russian fifth seed overpowered China’s Peng Shuai 6-4 6-2.

Serena, who returned from 11 months out with a lacerated foot and then life-threatening blood clots just in time for Wimbledon, spent the first three rounds shaking off the rust and appeared to be rediscovering the firepower that has brought the 29-year-old 13 grand slam titles.

Once again she scrapped like an alley-cat but the unorthodox Bartoli, beaten by Venus in the 2007 final, proved a match too far for the champion whose hopes of three consecutive titles evaporated in oppressive heat on Court One.

Serena warning

After defeat, though, she fired out an ominous warning to her rivals and any one preparing to write her off.

“Even today I lost, but I was able to kind of hang in there and play tough,” Williams, who was watched by friend and soul diva Beyonce, told reporters. “And I can only get better. And that can potentially be really scary, because I can only go up from here and I can just do so much more.”

Bartoli appeared to be playing with fire at times, jumping around inside the baseline as her opponent wound up her mighty serve and fist-pumping towards Williams after big points.

She carried it off, though, claiming her first victory over the American on her fifth match point after some fidgety moments for father and coach Walter, who Bartoli had banished from court on Saturday.

While Serena at least went down fighting, 31-year-old Venus produced a lame performance against Pironkova, the player who stopped her in the quarter-finals last year.

“Unfortunately I seem not to have my good days against her,” Venus said. “I think we both envisioned seeing this day going a little bit different.”

Bartoli will take on Sabine Lisicki on Tuesday after the German wildcard beat Czech Petra Cetkovska while Pironkova faces Czech Petra Kvitova, also a semi-finalist last year, after she clubbed Yanina Wickmayer 6-0 6-2.

With Sharapova up against Cibulkova and Belarussian fourth seed Victoria Azarenka playing surprise Austrian Tamira Paszek the quarter-final line-up is an all-European affair for the first time since 1913.

Source: News Agencies