Serena and Venus Williams crashed out in the Wimbledon fourth round within a few hours of each other on Monday as the sister act with nine trophies between them headed for the exits at the start of week two.
Ninth seed Marion Bartoli handed defending champion Serena a tenth Wimbledon defeat as the Frenchwoman held her nerve 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) win into the quarterfinals.
The victory on fifth match point was the worst defeat for four-time champion and holder Williams at the All England Club since 2005 when she lost in the third round.
Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova made sure history repeated itself, going past Venus Williams for a second straight year at the event, and even duplicating her 2010 scoreline, 6-2, 6-3.
“I love the grass, I feel so relaxed and the atmosphere makes me feel comfortable,” said Pironkova. “I played and pushed her as far as I could,” said the number 33. “She got shaky and made errors. “But that’s tennis. It was not so difficult to close it out. I just tried to focus and think of the next point.”
Bartoli’s win over Serena was her 40th of the season and sent her into a quarterfinal with German Sabine Lisicki, who defeated Czech Petra Cetkovska 7-6 (7-3), 6-1.
“It is one of my best wins,” said Bartoli. “Beating Serena is almost like a dream come true. She is probably one of the greatest champions. “To come back after having three match points (saved by Williams in the 12th game of the second set) and to still bounce back is huge. I was playing great and had a lot of occasions. “It was not easy to hang on mentally, but I did and I’m happy. Serena is imposing, a huge opponent. If you look too much at her you feel pressure. “I was trying to stay in my own bubble and focus on my own game.”
Williams, who has only been back practising for a month after a February blood clot scare, said she played well considering her circumstances. “I did really well just being able to come back and play and win some matches and just really play tough. Even if today I lost, but I was able to hang in there and play tough. “And I can only get better,” said the 29-year-old.
“That can potentially be really scary, because I can only go up from here and I can just do so much more.” Said Venus: “It was not our best day, we didn’t foresee this.”
