Bud Collins

PARIS – With three-time French Open champion Justine Henin suddenly retiring just 11 days before the start of the season’s second major here, Serena Williams was to me and a good group of others the most likely to be crowned the next Queen of Clay.

It wasn’t that far-fetched a prediction since talent-wise Serena has the goods and she was the only woman in the field to have captured this Grand Slam event – winning here in 2002.

All I can say is I was wrong. I’m returning my crystal ball to the manufacturer.

Without question Serena’s 6-4, 6-4 third-round loss to Katarina Srebotnik was the worst I’ve ever seen her play. I write that with no hesitation and with the knowledge that I’ve been watching her play since before she joined the pro tour in 1995.

To make matters worse for the Williams family, Serena's older sister, Venus, was also upset in the third round today, losing to Flavia Pennetta 7-5, 6-3 hours after Serena had fallen.

Serena was just awful today -- she had absolutely nothing to show for her time on the court. Her forehand was atrocious. Her footwork was flawed. She didn’t seem to have any clue as to what to do at the net. She constantly seemed off-balance and out-of-step. She showed little variety in her game and didn’t attempt to figure out how she could attempt to change things. The match was basically a bang, bang, bang affair to see who dropped first and we now know that Serena yelled uncle first.

Serena made 23 unforced errors and was forced into making 31 errors by Srebotnik. She only won seven of 21 points at the net and while her serve was broken on three of four occasions, Serena only made good on one of eight break points, losing all six break chances she had in the second set.

It was surprising that in her press conference after the match Serena mentioned that Srebotnik was getting a lot of balls back and that made it a difficult match for the American. I can’t imagine that any player -- no less a player of Serena’s caliber -- comes to the court, especially on clay, and doesn’t anticipate facing a lot of balls. I find that very perplexing and Serena should, too.

About the only positive thing for Serena from her match is that as long as she was standing still on the court she looked nice and wore a pretty dress. It’s baffling as to why and how a champion of Serena’s caliber could unravel as she did during this dreadful hour-and-a-half match. And I’m absolutely sure she doesn’t comprehend what happened and how it went so wrong either.

It was an extremely strange match because Serena managed to create opportunities for herself and then could do absolutely nothing with those chances. It was a very discouraging performance and it was obvious that her mind was not focused on the task at hand.

There seemed a glimmer of hope for Serena when she survived the first two match points in that final game when a nervous Srebotnik made two forehand errors. This was it -- a scene we’ve all seen before where an in trouble Serena finds the magic to save match points. In the past she has owned such big occasions by clawing her way back into a match to come out smelling like roses. I was already envisioning the third set, but not this time around. Two points later, after two failed forehand crosscourt shots gone wide, Serena was ready to go back to the hotel and pack her bags.

Her mother, Oracene, suggested that Serena is currently in a funk after the match, but she wouldn’t elaborate on what she meant. Maybe it’s that failed love affair that she wrote about on her blog earlier in the year. Or maybe it’s something else we don’t know about. I do know, however, that Oracene knows her girls well, so if she says Serena’s in a funk, she probably is.

Prior to the match I believed that Serena was in tennis mode, wanting to improve anything that might need fixing and was determined to win every time she stepped on court. It’s been my understanding that she wants to be regarded as the greatest of all time and certainly she possesses the talent to achieve that title. But a loss like this one to Srebotnik definitely doesn’t help her achieve that goal.

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