The days of part-time perfection for Serena and Venus Williams might very well be over.
No longer, it seems, can they dabble in tennis like a hobby, swoop in at Slam time, and dominate draws until making their appointed meeting in the final. No longer can they cast aside health woes as mere hiccups and take to the court with an aura of invincibility worth, say, a set.
Between injuries and scheduled sabbaticals, between trips to the Cannes Film Festival and the MTV Video Music Awards, between Serena's acting and Venus' interior decorating, the sisters are missing their cues on their sport's grandest stages. When the French Open semifinals are played Thursday, nary a Williams will be around. Instead, No. 7 Jennifer Capriati (who beat Serena) plays No. 6 Anastasia Myskina (who beat Venus), and No. 9 Elena Dementieva faces No. 14 Paola Suarez.
Casual fans should be excused for thinking, "Sure, I've heard of Capriati, but who are those three?" Capriati won the 2001 French Open and two other Grand Slam titles; the rest of the bunch came to Paris with one major semifinal appearance among them. Compare that to the Williams sisters, who during one stretch won eight of 11 Grand Slam tournaments and have produced six all-in-the-family major finals.
The question du jour is: What have you done for me lately? Venus last won a Slam in 2001, and it's close to 11 months since Serena was in a major final. They combined for 88 unforced errors Tuesday, prompting Serena to say, "I was an amateur today." There was a time when they swapped the No. 1 ranking the way some sisters share shoes. Now, Serena will drop to No. 11, her first slide out of the top 10 since 1999, and Venus will be No. 8 or 9. That's largely because of a lack of activity. Serena had surgery on her left knee Aug. 1, and didn't return to the tour until March. Then she withdrew from her third tournament back because of soreness in the knee. Venus lost six months to a torn abdominal muscle, won consecutive tournaments in April and May, then hurt her left ankle at the German Open.
{{/usCountry}}The question du jour is: What have you done for me lately? Venus last won a Slam in 2001, and it's close to 11 months since Serena was in a major final. They combined for 88 unforced errors Tuesday, prompting Serena to say, "I was an amateur today." There was a time when they swapped the No. 1 ranking the way some sisters share shoes. Now, Serena will drop to No. 11, her first slide out of the top 10 since 1999, and Venus will be No. 8 or 9. That's largely because of a lack of activity. Serena had surgery on her left knee Aug. 1, and didn't return to the tour until March. Then she withdrew from her third tournament back because of soreness in the knee. Venus lost six months to a torn abdominal muscle, won consecutive tournaments in April and May, then hurt her left ankle at the German Open.
{{/usCountry}}"It's enough to make you bitter," Venus said. "I've got to stay healthy."
So maybe Tuesday's dual defeats shouldn't have come as such a surprise.
"These days, it's not really shocking," Capriati said. "There's a lot of girls that have been playing a lot more tennis than they have."
Myskina, never before past the French Open's second round, echoed the sentiment when asked if the Williams' mystique has faded. "Oh, definitely. Right now, yes, because they just came back," the Russian said. "They lost a lot of months. You know, (other) players kept practicing. I mean, now, of course, everybody believes at least that they can fight with them."
And it's not simply that players feel better about facing Venus or Serena. It's also that Venus and Serena feel less assured about their own chances.
"When you start making a lot of errors, you make opponents feel that, 'OK, OK, I've got a chance now,' and their confidence goes up," said their mother and coach, Oracene Price. "With my girls, when they don't do what they do, they can lose their confidence, too. It goes both ways."
A Williams won the title at 19 of the previous 24 tournaments both entered. Price pointed to the clay as a cause of Tuesday's results, and it's true that the last time neither sister reached the semifinals at an event both played was the 2001 French Open. "You can't hit winners from the baseline on clay. You've got be more patient, and they're not right now," Price said. Then again, Serena did win the 2002 French Open, beating Venus in the final.
And Venus won 19 straight matches on clay before Tuesday. Price also called her daughters' injuries a psychological burden. Unhealthy bodies equal unhealthy minds, and they worry about tweaking or twisting something when they need to be figuring out how to take a point.
"They've got a lot of mental issues going," Price said. What's next? Can they reclaim a hold on tennis' heights? "For me, losing a match is not normal," Venus said, "so I'll just move on to the next tournament and get back to what's normal for me, which is winning matches."
Their next tournament will be Wimbledon, starting June 21. Instead of entering a tuneup event on grass, Venus and Serena will train on hard courts back home.
Still, it's important to recall that after last year's French Open disappointments - Venus' fourth-round exit, Serena's bitter semifinal loss to Justine Henin-Hardenne - they regrouped quickly enough to face off in the final at the All England Club. It wouldn't be shocking if that didn't happen again.