One has to feel badly for Zina Garrison. The Fed Cup captain at one time thought she would fly to Moscow with a dynamite team: Serena and Venus Williams, Lindsay Davenport, and Davenport’s long-time doubles partner, Corina Morariu. Even on clay, the United States would be a handful for the defending champion Russians.

Instead, Serena was injured and Davenport dropped out to nurse a back injury she sustained in the Wimbledon final against Venus. Worse still, Venus was less than advertised in her first Cup match on Saturday against Anastasia Myskina. Fresh off her third Wimbledon title, she reverted to the sloppy form that for two years routinely left her out of the running at major tournaments.

As for the rest of the team, Mashona Washington took a 5-1 lead over Elena Dementieva before losing in straight sets on Saturday, and Jill Craybas, a last-minute substitute for Davenport, was no match for Anastasia Myskina yesterday, losing 6-2, 6-4. The final score was 4-1 for Russia after Williams and Morariu lost to Dinara Safina and Vera Douchevina in doubles, 6-1, 7-5 yesterday.

And so Russia will be favored to defend its Fed Cup title, something that has not been done since the Americans accomplished it in 1999 and 2000. Meanwhile, the U.S. – holder of 17 Fed Cup titles but none since 2000 – got a glimpse of a bleak future, when there will be no Davenport or Williams sisters to save it.

It’s hard to fault Venus for failing to win three matches on her own this weekend. She vanquished a lot of demons at Wimbledon and looked wiped out from the effort. The clay – her least favorite surface – did not help matters, and the court in Moscow produced an inordinate number of awkward bounces, especially near the baseline.

Even so, it was perplexing to watch the two sides of Williams battle for center stage against Myskina on Saturday. One Venus moves as well as anyone in tennis, hits deep groundstrokes, and has a fondness for the swinging volley winner. The other is far more timid, often waiting for the ball and hitting flat-footed. This Venus forgets to turn her shoulders and slaps average returns out of bounds as if they’re bearing down on her at 250 mph.

Early on, the good Williams looked like she might prevail. Trailing 5-3 in the first set against Myskina, she unleashed the brand of frenetic tennis that smothered Maria Sharapova and Davenport in the last days of Wimbledon. At those moments, Williams is beautiful to watch; nothing gets past her. She broke at love for 5-5, held with the help of a service winner and an ace, and then broke again for the set. Williams had a chance to corner Myskina early in the second set when she led 1-0 and 40-0 on Myskina’s serve. But Myskina held on and then broke for a 3-2 lead as Williams’s errors began to pile up in what ended up as a 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 loss.

At Wimbledon, Richard Williams talked at length about technique being the key to Venus’s success. He said he had corrected her forehand and directed her to turn her shoulders more. Though she had a few lapses in the Wimbledon final, she did not miss when the match was on the line.

It’s too much, however, for us to expect this kind of consistency from Venus, whose form can break down quickly and painfully. Rather than propel her weight into her shots, Williams has a habit of falling backwards, giving her a follow through straight over her head. The result is a forehand that lands in bottom of the net.

Myskina was able to exploit Williams’s flaws by employing a strategy that no one tried at Wimbledon. Rather than consistently hitting angles and forcing Williams to hit on the run – something she likes to do – Myskina played a lot of groundstrokes straight up the middle. Her shots were deep enough to keep Williams back, and gave the American fewer opportunities to hit angles of her own. When Williams has a lot of time to set up, it seems, she makes her worst errors. As she has said in the past, her tennis goes wrong when she thinks too much.

Venus rebounded nicely yesterday, defeating Dementieva 6-1, 6-2 before Myskina sealed the victory for the Russians with her win over Craybas. The larger question is: How will Venus fare from this moment forward?

It’s always tempting to find permanent changes in a player who has just scored a surprising upset, especially in a major tournament. In Williams’s case, it’s her confidence, and perhaps not a whole lot else.The weaknesses are still there, even if on certain days they seem less apparent.

This summer, Williams ought to perform well if her legs remain healthy and her opponents allow her to use them. And she will certainly inject more drama into what is shaping up to be a promising summer for the women. If her confidence remains high, she might even take a title or two.

That said, if you are looking for a full-fledged resurgence from Williams through the U.S. Open, plan on being disappointed. For the first time in two years, she will be a marked player – a prized victory rather than merely a good win. Don’t expect her to run circles around the likes of Justine Henin-Hardenne or Kim Clijsters, or to dominate Sharapova as she did at Wimbledon – especially if they hit up the middle.

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The career of one clay-court genius sailed along this weekend, while another one was enshrined in the Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I.

Rafael Nadal, the 19-year-old Spaniard who won the French Open, captured his seventh clay court title of the season in Bastad, Sweden with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Tomas Berdych. In Newport, Jim Courier was inducted among the game’s greats. The 34-year-old American – yes, a year younger than Andre Agassi – won consecutive French Open titles, consecutive Australian Open titles, and spent 58 weeks as the no.1 player in the world. On Courier’s day, Greg Rusedski took his second straight grass-court title at Newport by defeating Vince Spadea, 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-4.