Perhaps it's too early to say an era is coming to a close, but this is definitely a moment. Just a few days into the French Open, both of the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, have been eliminated.

Both losses were shocking in their own way. Serena's first-round exit Tuesday, one of the bigger upsets in recent Grand Slam memory, was shocking because she's Serena Williams and her opponent was the 111th-ranked Virginie Razzano. It was shocking because she was up a set and still lost in three. It was shocking because she lost a second-set tiebreaker that she had been leading 5-1. It was shocking because she got down in the third set, fought back, but then still lost.

Venus's second-round exit Wednesday was also shocking, not really because she lost (she was unseeded, facing the 3-seed Agnieszka Radwanska), but because her defeat only took one hour. She won five games and lost 12 in 60 minutes. Even though Venus is no longer the Grand Slam favorite like she once was, we're used to her serving and hitting people off the court in an hour's time, not the other way around. Never the other way around. Because she's Venus.

Like I said, an era ending? Maybe not. But this is most certainly a moment.