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