TENNIS in DEPTH.

Five-times champion and second seed Venus Williams lost 6-2 6-3 to Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon on Tuesday.

Williams, whose loss meant she failed to reach the final for the first time since 2006, was outplayed from the outset by the world number 82 on Court One at the All England Club.

The 22-year-old was able to post four breaks of serve and a 12-to-6 winners-to-errors ratio, giving her the biggest victory of her young career.

Williams, meanwhile, struggled with her all-around game throughout the match. Armed with two break points at 2-2 in the first set, she was unable to polish off the game and went on to lose five consecutive games before faltering down the stretch.

Last year’s runner-up, Williams committed 29 unforced errors while hitting only 22 winners, mitigating her normal powerful serve and groundstrokes. This marks her earliest exit at Wimbledon since 2006, when she was ousted in the third round.

Pironkova, the lowest ranked player left in the women’s draw, will play Vera Zvonareva for a place in Saturday’s final.

Kim Clijsters was eliminated in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon by Russian Vera Zvonareva.

The 21st-seeded Zvonareva came back from a set down to win 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 Tuesday on her second match point when Clijsters netted a forehand.

Clijsters won the first set after breaking the Russian in the eighth game, when Zvonareva had two forehand errors and a double-fault.

But the eighth-seeded Belgian was broken four times by Zvonareva in the final two sets, putting the Russian into her first semifinal at the All England Club.

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