Williams sisters sent packing from Paris

The Williams roadshow rumbled out of Roland Garros on Tuesday after Venus and Serena were beaten in the French Open quarter-finals.

The Williams roadshow rumbled out of Roland Garros on Tuesday after Venus and Serena were beaten in the French Open quarter-finals.

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Champion and runner-up in the 2002 final, the sisters were unable to geing on a drizzly, dark day at Roland Garros.

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 E I was an amateur today," the former world number one and second seed said.

"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," she added, referring to 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 third seed and tournament favourite Amelie Mauresmo or Russia's Elena Dementieva who meet later on Tuesday.

CAPRIATI DELIGHTED

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.

Back on level terms, it was Serena's turn to disintegrate and she sloped off court, bitterly disappointed by a dismal display.

"I think this year I made it really tough on myself by not performing and by making a lot of errors and by just not keeping the ball in play," she said.

"Just basically not doing anything at a professional level."

Venus can have felt no happier after a very poor performance against a player in her first French quarter-final.

Despite her advantage in terms of experience, it was Venus who fell apart, and sixth-seeded Myskina sealed victory in one hour 12 minutes.