Williams sisters' feet of clay: Serena, Venus ousted on same day.

Byline: Charles Bricker

PARIS _ No more giggly press conferences. No more reports on famous people met at the Cannes Film Festival. And no more simply fascinating ruminations about the exact colors of their tennis outfits.

Serena and Venus Williams are out of the French Open. Both of them. On the same day, in the same quarterfinal round, in the same tournament for the first time since they were both professionals, beginning in 1995, and these twin losses probably mark the end of their days of domination of the WTA Tour.

That doesn't mean there aren't more Grand Slam titles in those murderously powerful right arms, and particularly at Wimbledon, which is coming up in 19 days. But there is too much talent on the women's tour now for any one player to scorch the field.

On a drippy Tuesday where the start of play was delayed by 21 minutes and interrupted by three further rain stoppages, Serena lost to Jennifer Capriati's new, killer finishing touch, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3. Venus, looking alternately distracted and disinterested, was beaten by Anastasia Myskina of Russia 6-3, 6-4.

In the top half of the draw, ninth-seeded Elena Dementieva joined her Russian compatriot Myskina in the semifinals by upsetting No. 3 Amelie Mauresmo of France 6-4, 6-3 and Paola Suarez, the forgotten Argentine, ended the run of a third Russian, Maria Sharapova, 6-1, 6-3.

But the importance of those matches was greatly overshadowed by the astonishing Williams defeats. It's been four years since Serena and Venus Williams have been double-Grand Slammed out of a major before the semifinals.