Bewildered Williams sisters are hit by dual battering

Venus Williams then followed sister Serena out after her 6-2 6-3 defeat by Tsvetana Pironkova ended American involvement in the women’s singles.

The effects of a challenging year which has seen Serena Williams restricted to less than three weeks of action due to injury and serious illness finally caught up with the defending champion.

She looked rusty as her gutsy passage through the Wimbledon draw came to a shuddering halt in the fourth-round tie on Court One, Bartoli winning 6-3 7-6 (8/6).

Frequently her accuracy deserted her as she scooped a series of shots out of play, often because she had connected with the ball poorly.

The American’s defeat means this is only the third year that the defending champion has failed to make the quarter-finals in the open era.

Fighting spirit enabled Williams to trade blows with Bartoli in an impossibly tight second set, but she was striving to stay on terms rather than dominating.

Bartoli was superb, playing with confidence, passion and poise to seal her first victory over the American in three contests.

It took five match points before Bartoli could finally land the killer blow as her nerve threatened to fail her, but she regained composure to seal a deserved victory.

Little over an hour after Serena had been sent tumbling out, Venus was comprehensively outplayed by the Bulgarian 32nd seed Pironkova.

It means this year will be the first since 2006 that neither Williams sister has won Wimbledon.

Five-time champion Venus was playing only her second tournament since withdrawing from the Australian Open with a hip injury and she was well short of her best yesterday.

The repeat of last year’s quarter-final resulted in an identical outcome as the highly-impressive Pironkova, 23, made light work of the fourth-round match.

Williams, who had reached at least the quarter-finals on 11 of her 14 previous visits to Wimbledon, struggled to find her range and was frequently foiled by the net.

Pironkova accounted for second seed Vera Zvonareva in the previous round and will next meet Petra Kvitova for a place in the last four – a remarkable run for a player who had won just four matches in 14 tournaments this year heading into Wimbledon.

The one-way traffic began in the first set when Williams’s serve came under sustained attack in the sixth game and she crumbled after conceding a second break point.

Poor stroke selection from the American, making her 15th appearance at Wimbledon, allowed Pironkova to produce a stinging passing shot that was returned into the net.

Pironkova was trading on equal terms from the baseline and made light work of her next service game to move 5-2 ahead.

Hoping to find refuge on her own serve, Williams instead fell to pieces as she conceded three break points, the third of which she directed into the net.

The problems continued to mount early in the second set for Williams, who was being cheered on by all-time great Billie Jean King, as Pironkova broke once more.

The net emerged as the American’s chief tormentor as it came to Pironkova’s rescue on two occasions and the Wimbledon exit beckoned for the 23rd seed.

Athletic and composed, Pironkova looked in complete control until a glimmer of hope appeared for Williams in the fifth game with a vicious backhand establishing break point.

The game was proving a key battleground in the set and Williams rose to the occasion, wasting the first chance to break but capitalising on a second by outgunning her opponent from the baseline.

The respite was short-lived, however, and Williams only had herself to blame as she made a series of errors to enable Pironkova to break back immediately.

Two big serves and a stunning backhand passing shot dug Pironkova out of trouble in the seventh.

Three match points followed in the ninth and Pironkova excelled during the second, firing a lightning serve and forehand winner to close out her triumph.

“This was definitely not our best day. I think we both envisioned seeing this day going a little bit different,” said Venus.

Serena had played just two matches all year before her first-round tie after recovering from blood clots on her lung.

“I obviously would have loved to do better but considering the condition I was in, considering a lot of things, I really feel I did well,” said Williams.

“I would have been sad being at home watching it on TV, like I’m going to be soon.

“I made an effort to get out here and play a couple of tournaments. I just can’t sit here and be disappointed. For the most part, I can just use this as momentum going forward.

“I can only get better and that can potentially be really scary, because I can only go up from here and I can just do so much more.”

Serena, a 13-time grand slam champion, will now plummet to 180th in the world and will require a wild card to compete at the US Open, unless she can earn some ranking points during the first part of the hard court season.

Wimbledon’s top seed and world No 1 Caroline Wozniacki also bowed out on a day of big-name casualties, the Dane losing a nailbiting clash to Dominika Cibulkova 1-6 7-6 (7/5) 7-5.

Today Cibulkova, who is 5ft 3ins but nevertheless a big-hitter, will face 2004 champion and firm title favourite Maria Sharapova, who reached the quarter-finals with a 6-4 6-2 victory over Shuai Peng.

Bartoli’s prize for her first career victory over Serena Williams is a last-16 meeting with Sabine Lisicki, who beat Petra Cetkovska 7-6 (7/3) 6-1.

Pironkova will face Czech eighth seed Petra Kvitova, who breezed through with a 6-0 6-2 victory over Belgian Yanina Wickmayer.

And fourth seed Victoria Azarenka will go up against the world No 80 Tamira Paszek for a place in the semi-finals after brushing past Nadia Petrova 6-2 6-2. Austrian Paszek beat Ksenia Pervak of Russia 6-2 2-6 6-3.