Athens, Greece ? Andy Roddick hit one last errant shot into the net and hung his head, his medal hopes over. A short while later, Venus Williams was gone, too.

In back-to-back stunners at the Olympic tennis tournament, Roddick was beaten by No. 16 Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 6-4, 6-4, and defending gold medalist Williams lost to Mary Pierce of France 6-4, 6-4. Both were third-round matches.

“I’m gutted right now. It’s not every day we get to play this,” Roddick said. “You can’t say, ‘Next year.'”

For the first time since tennis returned to the Olympics as a medal sport in 1988, no U.S. woman will win a singles medal. That’s because in addition to Williams’ exit, No. 16 Chanda Rubin lost to No. 2 Amelie Mauresmo of France 6-3, 6-1, and Lisa Raymond was eliminated by Alicia Molik of Australia 6-4, 6-4.

“Just a pretty rough day for Americans,” U.S. coach Zina Garrison said.

Some did stick around, though. Mardy Fish got past Max Mirnyi of Belarus 6-3, 4-6, 6-1, and Taylor Dent beat Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia 6-4, 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals.

Martina Navratilova, in her first Olympics at age 47, and Raymond advanced to the doubles quarterfinals when their opponents, Mauresmo and Pierce, pulled out. Mauresmo developed a rash from a skin allergy during her win over Rubin.

Shot Put

Ukrainian Yuriy Bilonog took a flag-draped victory lap while American Adam Nelson stood in the shot put ring for three minutes, pointing at officials and pleading.

Nelson led the entire competition, but Bilonog’s final throw tied Nelson for the best of the day at 69 feet, 5 1/4 inches. Nelson had one last chance to win and unleashed a great toss, but was called for his fifth consecutive foul.

Since Nelson had no other good throws and Bilonog had several, the Ukrainian won and left Nelson stunned at the ancient site that gave birth to the Olympics 28 centuries ago. Denmark’s Joachim Olsen won the bronze at 69-1 1/2.

Softball

Jennie Finch pitched a one-hitter with eight strikeouts and Lisa Fernandez went 3-for-4 with a home run as the United States won its fifth straight shutout, beating Canada 7-0 to clinch a spot in this weekend’s semifinals.

Crystl Bustos and Lisa Fernandez homered for the two-time defending gold medal-winning U.S. squad, which has outscored its opponents 31-0.

Cycling

Tyler Hamilton won the men’s time-trial gold medal, and teammate Bobby Julich took the bronze hours after Dede Barry won a silver in the women’s time trial. No other nation in the Olympics won more than two medals in the four road competitions.

Hamilton edged defending men’s time trial gold medalist Viatcheslav Ekimov of Russia by about 19 seconds, taking home the first American road gold since the boycotted Los Angeles Olympics in 1984.

Women’s Volleyball

Milagros Cabral de la Cruz had the match-winning kill in the fifth set, giving the Dominican Republic a 26-24, 22-25, 27-25, 23-25, 19-17 victory over the United States.

Dropping to 1-2, the Americans must play Russia on Friday and Cuba on Sunday to close the preliminary round.

Women’s Basketball

Lisa Leslie scored 25 points on 11-of-13 shooting, Tina Thompson added 18 points, and the United States hit South Korea with a big second half run to stay unbeaten with an 80-57 victory.

The Americans broke it open with a 19-2 run to start the second half.

Shooting

American Kim Rhode won the gold medal in double trap shooting, staking a unique claim as the first and last winner of the Olympic event.

Rhode won the 1996 gold when double trap was introduced at the Atlanta Olympics, and she now owns the 2004 medal in the event, which is being eliminated. She also won the bronze in 2000.