S. Williams Is Knocked Out of Italian Open

Serena Williams lunges to beat out a volley in her match against Patty Schnyder in the Italian Open quarterfinals on Friday. (Julian Finney - Getty Images)

Serena Williams hasn't played the French Open in three years and hardly seems ready for this month's clay-court major.

She made an array of mistakes yesterday in her final match before the French, losing to Patty Schnyder, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (7-5), in the Italian Open quarterfinals in Rome.

"I'm going to obviously want to work harder and just do some things differently," Williams said. "Where I am today, in Paris I'll probably be even better."

In the semifinals, Schnyder will face third-seeded Jelena Jankovic, who routed Elena Dementieva, 6-2, 6-1. Second-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova beat sixth-seeded Dinara Safina, 6-1, 6-3, in an all-Russian match and will next play ninth-seeded Daniela Hantuchova, who beat unseeded Anabel Medina Garrigues, 7-6 (10-8), 7-5.

This was only Williams's third loss this season. She began 2007 by winning the Australian Open for her first major title in two years. . . .

Rafael Nadal extended his record winning streak on clay to 80 matches by defeating Fernando Gonzalez, 6-4, 6-4, to reach the semifinals of the Hamburg Masters.

Roger Federer also reached the semis, but struggled to beat David Ferrer, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. The world No. 1's next opponent is Carlos Moya, who upset fourth-seeded Novak Djokovic, 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 7-5.

In the semifinals, Nadal will play Lleyton Hewitt-- against whom he has 1-4 record -- after the Australian beat Nicolas Almagro, 6-3, 6-4.

· PRO FOOTBALL: Brett Favre slammed both hands on the podium, wanting to be clear: He never suggested he couldn't win with this current group of Packers.

The Green Bay quarterback was trying to defuse a week's worth of comments. And while he was frustrated the Packers did not trade for Randy Moss, Favre said during minicamp in Green Bay this was no knock on his teammates.

"Not once did I say anything about the guys I play with," Favre said at a news conference.