Williams both fail in Paris

Both the Williams sisters got clobbered at the French Open, Serena 6-4, 6-4 and Venus 7-5, 6-3: "Williams has had matches in which she made more unforced errors, but this one was awash in mistakes, many of them on important points. She sprayed forehands, botched several straightforward backhand volleys and mistimed a short overhead close to the net late in the second set. There were occasional shrieks of resistance and some forceful play from Williams, but at 4-4 in the second set she lost her serve after a forehand drop shot that barely reached the net. Venus Williams might still be in contention if she had lobbied the chair umpire, Carlos Ramos, to stop play because of darkness before the end of the second set. The match between Jelena Jankovic and Dominika Cibulkova on Court 1 had been stopped at 9:30 p.m. But Williams and Pennetta continued on center court. "It was dark, but that wasn't really what I was focused on," Williams said. "If I did stop, I would have wanted it at 5-all, and that probably would have been a good time, a fair time for both of us." But she never made it to 5-all. After Pennetta held serve for a 5-3 lead, Williams failed to extend the match, losing a 40-15 lead by dropping four straight points. "I never get used to losing," Williams said. "I don't think anyone gets used to losing, and if they do, then maybe it's time to retire."

Rico says the subhead for this New York Times column was "SERENA SUCCUMBS TO HER OWN ERRORS, VENUS TO DARKNESS", which offers up an obvious joke about 'darkness', given the difference between Venus and her opponent, which Rico will now avoid...