By Bill Simons
Commentator Nick Lester made it clear. “Plenty of people have seen this before,” he said. “We’ve been there, done that, got the T-shirt.”
In the old days at Wimbledon, the previous year’s champion would sit on the side, and everyone else would compete for the right to face them in the final. With Serena Williams at this year’s French Open, you might as well just give the first set to her opponent.
The T-shirt about Serena’s struggles would note that she came back from a deficit against world No. 105 Anna-Lena Friedsam; that two-time Aussie Open Vika Azarenka had her on the ropes in a contentious third-round match; and that one round later, rising Sloane Stephens seemed about to take her down. But again and again—somehow, someway—the drama queen of tennis did her thing, flipped a switch, threw a lightning-bolt ace, offered a fist pump, and howled, “C’mon!”
Still, today in the semis, despite her incredible 24-3 record at this stage of Slams, Serena at last seemed truly vulnerable. World No. 24 Timea Bacsinszky, whose abuse-survivor backstory is perhaps as poignant as Serena’s out-of-Compton narrative, seemed set on victory. Using creative drop shots and lobs, Bacsinszky was playing within herself, oblivious to much of the Serena drama that was swirling about her.
Williams was not only stressed by the suddenly warmer Paris temperatures, she was visibly ill, perhaps with a bug similar to the one that hampered long-gone No. 2 seed Maria Sharapova. Simply put, Serena should have been flat on her back in bed in her cozy Paris apartment, rather than battling a rising Swiss phenom on Court Central. No, this wasn’t the complete meltdown we saw in that frightening Wimbledon doubles match last year, when a dazed Serena double-faulted four times in a row and had to retire. Still, on numerous points, she sluggishly fumbled the ball before serving, or just appeared to stop mid-rally. During changeovers, she asked strange questions, seemed groggy, and buried her face in her towel. All the whole, Timea took her time and hit the lines to grab the first set, 6-4, then broke to go up 3-2 in the second. Three games from victory, she had the champ on the ropes.
But then, as if some director in the sky had called out instructions, Bacsinszky’s level dropped. She played a loose service game, while Serena stepped up and scored her first break. Soon, Williams was storming back to take total control, just like she has throughout this tournament. What’s a girl to do when she’s flabbergasted? Unleash a devastating ace or two, and let loose her frustration with a fierce forehand winner. Before the momentum swung, Serena had managed only one break point on Bacsinszky’s serve. By the end, she’d collected five breaks in a row and ten straight games to score a 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory.
What could have been an enchanting Swiss fairytale about a lovely lady from Lausanne turned into yet another learning opportunity. Serena Williams is a force unto herself. You may think that she is down for the count, but think again. Ultimately, her will, her ferocity, her power and been-to-this-rodeo-before experience emerge in an intense flurry of winners. All the while, her poor victims are left to look down and mutter, “I went to Paris and played the French Open tennis tournament and all I got was this crummy T-shirt: ‘Serena Williams, No. 1.'”
THE BUZZ:
BIG PAYCHECK, BIG WINNERS: Chris Evert said semifinalist Timea Bacsinszky will go home with a big paycheck, at which point commentator Chris Fowler noted the obvious: “It’ll be a lot more than the tips she was earning in that [hotel] restaurant.” As in the match itself, it took Serena a while to warm up during her immediate post-match interviews. She first confided in French, “I’m a little bit ill,” then had a modest coughing fit before gathering herself to tell ESPN, “I don’t think I’ve ever been this sick … I can’t believe I won. I got the flu after my third-round match … Hopefully this is the worst, and I’ll get better. I really thought I was going to lose, and I thought: if I’m going to lose, I might as well go for winners.”
TWENTY AND ONE: Serena‘s now won 20 Slam matches in a row, and the No. 1 player in the world needs just one more victory, over Lucie Safarova, to claim her 20th Slam title on Saturday.
GO FIGURE: Who’d have guessed that the last lefty standing at Roland Garros would be Lucie Safarova, not Rafa Nadal? … Serena has come from a set down four times, including against the world No. 105, to reach this year’s French Open final. Her opponent, No. 13 seed Safarova, has yet to drop a single set while beating defending champ Maria Sharapova, 2008 champ Ana Ivanovic, former Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki, and Garbine Muguruza (who defeated Serena here last year) … The last time Serena faced the No. 13 seed in a Slam final, she lost to Sam Stosur at the 2011 US Open … Serena‘s record against Safarova is a perfect 8-0 … Mike Bryan and Bethanie Mattek-Sands won the mixed doubles, and Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova, who won the Australian Open doubles title in January, could still win the French Open crown—i.e., both women could win two titles in Paris.
