PARIS — She should no longer be a mystery at this point, but even after all these years and all those championships, it can still be difficult to figure out Serena Williams.
Despite all her Grand Slam championships, Williams adds intrigue to any tournament she plays because tennis often seems like just another way to fill her schedule until the major tournaments come around.
That adds an element of surprise wherever she goes. After winning the Australian Open in January, Williams did not play a match again until this month, saying she was resting a sore left knee.
During her time away, she traveled to Kenya to open a school in her name and took courses to become a nail technician.
“I was injured, and then I was twiddling my thumbs at home,” Williams, 28, said last week. “I had nothing to do. I was just working out and just trying to get better. I was bored, and that’s how I got into nail school.”
Nothing should surprise those who have followed Williams’ career. Eight years after winning her lone French Open — the only major title that she has not won at least three times — Williams is the No. 1-ranked player and the top seed.
Yet she may not be the favorite. After all, she has not advanced past the quarterfinals at Roland Garros since 2003 — a match best remembered for a dust-up with eventual champion Justine Henin over whether Henin had raised her hand to call for time as Williams missed a serve. The chair judge did not see it, and Williams fumed — and lost.
Still, no player on the women’s side can match Williams when she is healthy and motivated. Even now, it is hard to tell if she is both, or either.
Williams, who declared herself fully healthy before the tournament began, struggled to wriggle past Switzerland’s Stefanie Voegele on a hot afternoon at Court Philippe Chatrier on Monday.
For a time, Voegele, ranked 76th, matched Williams’ big serves and powerful forehands and the occasional overhead smash, and there was a buzz over whether Williams would be the first big-name player to tumble from the tournament.
Voegele, whose tour biography lists Williams and Roger Federer as the players she most admires, pushed Williams to a first-set tiebreak. Along the way, the taut back-and-forth occasionally elicited the type of emotional fist pumps and screams that Williams unleashes when provoked.
Williams surged to score seven of nine points to capture the set. Having found her footing, and perhaps having broken Voegele’s spirit, Williams cruised to a 7-6(2), 6-2 victory.
Despite all her Grand Slam championships, Williams adds intrigue to any tournament she plays because tennis often seems like just another way to fill her schedule until the major tournaments come around.
That adds an element of surprise wherever she goes. After winning the Australian Open in January, Williams did not play a match again until this month, saying she was resting a sore left knee.
During her time away, she traveled to Kenya to open a school in her name and took courses to become a nail technician.
“I was injured, and then I was twiddling my thumbs at home,” Williams, 28, said last week. “I had nothing to do. I was just working out and just trying to get better. I was bored, and that’s how I got into nail school.”
Nothing should surprise those who have followed Williams’ career. Eight years after winning her lone French Open — the only major title that she has not won at least three times — Williams is the No. 1-ranked player and the top seed.
Yet she may not be the favorite. After all, she has not advanced past the quarterfinals at Roland Garros since 2003 — a match best remembered for a dust-up with eventual champion Justine Henin over whether Henin had raised her hand to call for time as Williams missed a serve. The chair judge did not see it, and Williams fumed — and lost.
Still, no player on the women’s side can match Williams when she is healthy and motivated. Even now, it is hard to tell if she is both, or either.
Williams, who declared herself fully healthy before the tournament began, struggled to wriggle past Switzerland’s Stefanie Voegele on a hot afternoon at Court Philippe Chatrier on Monday.
For a time, Voegele, ranked 76th, matched Williams’ big serves and powerful forehands and the occasional overhead smash, and there was a buzz over whether Williams would be the first big-name player to tumble from the tournament.
Voegele, whose tour biography lists Williams and Roger Federer as the players she most admires, pushed Williams to a first-set tiebreak. Along the way, the taut back-and-forth occasionally elicited the type of emotional fist pumps and screams that Williams unleashes when provoked.
Williams surged to score seven of nine points to capture the set. Having found her footing, and perhaps having broken Voegele’s spirit, Williams cruised to a 7-6(2), 6-2 victory.
Williams sister Venus, the French Open’s second seed, won her first-round match on Sunday and watched Serena Williams in the stands with other family members. The last time the two were the top two seeds at a Grand Slam event was at the 2003 Australian Open.
The legacies of the Williams sisters are still unfolding, but they are the dominant female players of the century’s first decade. On paper, because Venus Williams’ seven Grand Slam victories do not include wins at either the French or Australian opens, Serena Williams might be the more accomplished.
Yet eight years after her only win at Roland Garros, she might be just as much a mystery as ever.
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