Without both sisters, it's nation vs. nation

Defending champion Serena Williams faced Amelie Mauresmo today.
PARIS (AP) -- It's been quite some time since only one Williams sibling was left to uphold the family honor in the late stages of a Grand Slam tournament.
Now, after Venus Williams' earliest loss at a major in two years, younger sister Serena faced a potentially tough match today against Amelie Mauresmo -- who's trying to uphold a nation's honor as the last of 33 French men and women in the tournament.
The fifth-ranked Mauresmo is the only player with victories over both sisters this year.
"You've really got to try and get your head clear of all the media hype around the Williamses," Mauresmo said, "and realize that these are not players from outer space."
All-Russian match
That shapes up as the most intriguing quarterfinal, although Russian fans have one all to themselves between Vera Zvonareva and Nadia Petrova. They were childhood rivals more than a decade ago in Moscow and advanced Sunday with three-set upsets: Zvonareva over Venus Williams, Petrova over 2001 champion Jennifer Capriati.
The other matchups were 2001 runner-up Kim Clijsters vs. 2000 runner-up Conchita Martinez, and Justine Henin-Hardenne vs. Chanda Rubin.
French state TV promoted its broadcast of Williams-Mauresmo with ads Monday that blared the theme from "Rocky."
Many watching will wonder: Can someone other than a Williams win a major?
"I just think the players are trying to get someone else to win a Slam," Lindsay Davenport said. "I mean, it's not only Serena. She and her sister have so many -- I don't even know what their record is. It seems like they've taken so many titles."
Well, for the record, one sister or the other has captured eight of the past 11 Grand Slam titles, with five all-Williams championship matches. A successful defense at Roland Garros would make Serena the first player with five consecutive major trophies since Steffi Graf in 1988-89.
Martina Navratilova, for one, thinks the gap between the Williams duo and the rest of the circuit is shrinking.
"That aura of invincibility they had has definitely shrunk," Navratilova said. "I feel it in the locker room, just the way the players are talking. And I think you can see by how they're playing now against them. It's not: 'Oh, my God. I hope I don't get wiped off the court 6-1, 6-1.' It's: 'I have a chance here.' "
The reality
That could be, but Serena still strides on court with the confidence befitting someone who has won 32 straight Grand Slam matches and is 34-2 with four titles overall this season.
She thinks the only player who can beat her is herself.
"It's been that way for a couple of years now," she said. "Whenever I lose, it's not because the girl I lost to just played an outstanding match. It's normally because I'm making 80 errors, and just not doing the things I need to do."
Venus, though, is far from the dominant player who won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open twice each and took over at No. 1 early last year.
First, she slipped to No. 2 in her own home, then to No. 3 in the WTA Tour rankings, and she could fall as far as No. 5 by next week.
Venus hasn't been as low as No. 4 since November 2001, or No. 5 since July 2000.
"I feel like there isn't always a time where things can be 100 percent, and for a couple of years, I had 100 percent a lot of the time," she said. "But when you lose, and when you have tougher times, it makes you stronger and moves you forward. And I still feel that I'm doing those things."