The US is facing its longest wait for a new Agassi or Sampras – the time has come to cast net wider

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The thing is...

Even when they are no longer here, the Williams sisters cast a long shadow. Yesterday, both the women who had the temerity to send them home found they had inadequate reserves to deal with their next opponents.

Their exit from the tournament, without a set between them yesterday, at least demonstrated that the women's game is not quite the turkey shoot it might have seemed, had one of them gone on to a tenth title in 12 years. But it was always a bit ambitious, to expect Serena and Venus Williams to perceive that bigger picture themselves. Asked to do so, Serena was withering. "Yeah, I'm super happy I lost," she said. "Go, women's tennis."

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

The 23-year-old Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova delivered yesterday's big upset in the women's singles draw, knocking out the Russian second seed Vera Zvonareva 6-2, 6-3 on Court Two, to exact revenge for her defeat in last year's three-set semi-final.

Swiss enjoys first time under Centre Court roof with straight-sets win over Mannarino

If I never do anything further in tennis, you made my life so special in so many ways

Five-time champion Venus Williams rallied from a set down to beat Japan's Kimiko Date-Krumm in a match of breathtaking drama under the roof on Wimbledon's Centre Court.

Whatever green shoots might be perceived elsewhere, the first use of the new show court here yesterday proved mournfully consistent with the British sport's exorbitant dependence, for the time being, on Andrew Murray.

Even a rusty saw can perform an amputation, and Venus Williams duly made short work of some of the more tenuous delusions that have preceded her return to her favourite theatre of operations. She took exactly an hour to hack her way past an obligingly limp first-round opponent, Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan, 6-3, 6-1. So much for the notion that even the Williams sisters, who have divided nine of the past 11 titles between them, might have ceded the pack a dangerous start this time.

A question for you guys: what is it about Serena Williams and Wimbledon? It's something I can't explain. No way. Nobody can. It's a mystery why she loves it here so much – I'm not sure even she can explain it. But she sure does. Absolutely. This is her place.