Venus And Serena Williams Lose At Wimbledon On Same Day

By Bill Chappell

Published June 27, 2011 at 1:13 PM EDT

Venus Williams hits a return to Tsvetana Pironkova during their match Monday. With the loss, Williams followed her sister, Serena, out of this year's tournament.

Both Serena and Venus Williams were eliminated from Wimbledon's singles tournament Monday, ending a streak of success at the grass event.

Their exit means that for the first time since 2006, neither Williams sister will play in the Wimbledon women's final.

Here's part of a Newscast report NPR's Philip Reeves filed from London:

On an unusually hot day in London, the attempt by Serena Williams to come back from her health problems came to a sticky end when she was beaten by France's Marion Bartoli - the No. 9 seed. Williams lost the first set 6-3, but put up a fierce fight in the second, saving five match points before going out of the contest on a tie-break.

For all her many titles, Serena Williams was always likely to struggle in this contest, after being out of action for months. Soon afterwards, sister Venus, a five-time champion who's also had injury problems, was also shown the door, losing to the 32nd seed, Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova.

The sisters are not entered in the doubles bracket this year. Their departure is the latest setback for American tennis at this year's Wimbledon.

Andy Roddick went on a nice run before being eliminated by Feliciano Lopez, to whom he'd never lost before. With the Williams' departures, that leaves Mardy Fish, ranked No. 9 in the world, as the lone American — male or female — in the singles tournament.

Monday, Fish took the first set in his match against Tomas Berdych (it was tied 4-4 at the writing of this post).

Several U.S. doubles players, such as the Bryan brothers and the team of Lisa Raymond and Liezel Huber, are still in contention.