Serve-volley a dying art as Mauresmo exit sparks fear for purists

Even at her favourite venue the 2006 champion could not arrest what appears to be a long-term slide in her career when she was beaten 7-6, 6-1 by fellow former winner Serena Williams.

The pleasing traditional backhand, the fearless forays to the net - you will not be seeing too many of those in the second week, which is shaping up to be the Williams sisters versus Eastern Europe.

Down and out: Mauresmo after her defeat

Williams, victor in 2002 and 2003, is through to meet the slightly zany American Bethanie Mattek after bludgeoning her more creative opponent into submission.

Mauresmo needed treatment on the small tear in the thigh muscle that has been troubling her and appeared to lose heart after defeat in a tight tie-breaker 7-5.

It seems that various bits are falling off her these days and, however strong her resolve, it is questionable how long she will go on before she joins Henin in retirement.

While it would not be a complete shock if the Belgian was to compete again at some time in the future, once the delightful Mauresmo goes there will be no coming back.

She has yet to go beyond a quarter-final this year and it is a far cry from her golden year of 2006 when she also won the Australian Open.

Both players struggled at times to make necessary adjustments due to the wind, and they have not been the first to be troubled by it this week.

It raises the question of how much the new design of the Centre Court roof may be having on the players, with Roger Federer having already mentioned that he was troubled by the sun when it descended to a certain angle.

The permanent roof has been pushed back to accommodate the sliding ceiling and it may be that it has changed the wind currents around the arena.

The demise of Mauresmo, which is looking part of a longer term winding down of her career, should give pleasure to nobody.

Not only does she play a beautifully crisp game, but she is also blessedly free of the shriek/grunt employed by too many of the women players.

It is annoying enough when the now departed Maria Sharapova uses it on every point, but surely unfair and even less welcome when it is used sporadically by Williams, whose sister Venus is another culprit.

Williams war cry: The grunt is used sporadically by Serena, and her sister Venus

It was a contrasting pleasure to see Mauresmo use the serve and-volley tactic, which is almost totally defunct in women's tennis and dying out in the men's game as well.

Surely there must be some non-conformist coaches out there willing to teach the art of volleying and not produce players for whom the net is an almost total exclusion zone.

A major factor is that modern racket and string technology make rivals easier to pass at the net, but so often you see players of both sexes lingering on the baseline when the situation is crying out for them to come in for the kill, if only they had the courage.

Williams is probably not quite the player she was when she claimed two titles here owing to a slight lessening of her consistency in her thumping groundstrokes. But she had enough to eke out the key first set.

Mauresmo paid heavily for a terrible game that came just after she had broken back for 3-2.

She somehow managed to net an absolute sitter of a forehand and then followed it up with a double fault.

It meant she was forced to break back again in her next receiving game to force the tiebreak which, given her condition, she knew she had to win.

The key point in that was a brilliant lob from Williams to go 3-1 up, and she just about managed to cling on to her lead before wrapping it up in the second.

With Ana Ivanovic going out, it is opening up for Serena.

For the second Major in succession there have been first-week shocks among the women, suggesting their ranks are developing greater depth.