What you need to know about Day 4 at the French Open

The rain and drama at Roland Garros never seems to end, especially after Wednesday's action as the women's side appears to be unraveling with the loss of tennis' royal family, while the men steamroll by the opponents they're expected to beat.

Serena and Venus Williams eliminated 

About an hour after Venus Williams' 2-6 6-3 6-4 defeat to teenager Anna Schmiedlova on Day 4 of the French Open, Spain's Garbine Muguruza stunned the tennis world when she easily took care of defending French Open champion Serena Williams in straight sets. The sisters were on a collision course to meet in the third round, but tennis fans will instead be treated to a match featuring Schmiedlova and Muguruza.

Muguruza's composure during the 64-minute match was a stark contrast to Williams who looked didn't look like her usual dominating self. Muguruza took advantage of Williams' 29 errors and went on to a 6-2 6-2 straight sets victory.

Wednesday's loss represents the first time both sisters were eliminated on the same day of a major tournament since 2011 when the two were ousted in the Round of 16 at Wimbledon.

How to make productive use of a changeover

Novak Djokovic showed on Monday that a rain delay can be a golden opportunity to get chummy with the unheralded tournament personnel. 

On Wednesday, 18-year-old American Taylor Townsend, fast becoming a fan favorite at her first professional Grand Slam, raised some eyebrows when she was seen flipping through a book in her chair during a changeover. Nobody could tell what she was reading, but with the young Chicago native knocking off top-ranked Frenchwoman Alize Cornet, all agreed that it was working. Afterwards Townsend explained, and it all made sense. 

Perhaps as a result, Townsend failed to properly read the scoreboard. After her match, she was asked how it felt to win on the same court where hours earlier Serena Williams had lost.

"Serena lost?" She said, surprised. "She did? Oh, oops. Whoa... I thought she won. I saw (6-)2 and (6-)2. I was like 'Oh, that was fast.'" 

Sharapova victorious after slow start

With the No. 1 seeded Williams out of the tournament and Li Na's surprising loss Tuesday, Maria Sharapova emerged as the favorite to capture her second French Open title after advancing to the third round with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Bulgaria's Tsvetana Pironkova.

The win, however, didn't look guaranteed after the 2012 French Open champion struggled early in the match, falling behind 4-2 before battling back to capture a 7-5 first set win.

Sharapova will play either Monica Niculescu or Paula Ormaechea in her third round match.

Federer and Djokovic make it look easy

While the women's side is packed with drama and upsets, the favorites in the men's bracket, with the exception of Stanislas Wawrinka, have cruised by their opponents during the early rounds of the French Open.

Wednesday's highest seeded players took the court Wednesday, with Novak Djokovic handing France's Jeremy Chardy a straight sets 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 defeat and Roger Federer making easy work of his 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 win over Argentina's Diego Sebastian.

The Serbian went into his match, as he told reporters, with "no fears", and recorded his ninth victory over Chardy with no losses.

He moves on to face No. 25 seed Marin Cilic, who will undoubtedly put up a much bigger fight for the Serbian.

Meanwhile, the 2009 French Open champion Roger Federer captured his 60th victory at the tournament and moves on to play 31st seed Dmitry Tursunov in the third round.

Other notable victories on the men's side include No. 8 Milos Raonic's 7-6(4), 6-4, 6-1 win over Jiri Vesely, No. 6 Tomas Berdych's 6(4)-7, 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 win over Aleksandr Nedovyesov and No. 13 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga's 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 over Jurgen Melzer.

 No. 15 Mikhail Youzhny and  No. 20 Alexandr Dolgopolov were the only two seeded men to falter.

Stan apologizes for letting you down

Stan Wawrinka was probably sick enough of people picking him apart after his disappointing first-round exit, and he certainly didn't want to hear it from former contemporary Andy Roddick, who seems to have graduated to punditry:

Quote of the day

"She was my favorite player as a kid, and I watched her on TV growing up. When I practiced, I studied how Serena serves, how she plays a backhand. I saw like 100 videos of her. It was really difficult to be able to be calm and say, 'It's just another player who I can beat if I play well.' But I think I did it, and that was the reason I was able to play like this."

- Garbine Muguruza, after her victory over Serena Williams

In action on Thursday

Men: No. 1 Rafael Nadal, No. 5  David Ferrer, No. 7 Andy Murray, No. 12 Richard Gasquet

Women: No. 4 Simona Halep, No. 5  Petra Kvitova, No. 6 Jelena Jankovic, No. 11  Ana Ivanovic