Serena Williams' health the biggest question vs. Lucie Safarova
PARIS – Saturday in the women's French Open final here, it's one player's continued chase of greatness against an opponent going after her very first Grand Slam singles title.
World No. 1 Serena Williams is just one match away from her 20th career major when she takes to the court against Lucie Safarova, a Czech left-hander who has hovered around the top 25 for much of her career.
The plot has plenty of twists, as one might expect in Paris: An ill Serena appeared pained and exhausted through much of her semifinal win over Timea Bacsinszky, while Safarova, a mature 28, is playing the kind of tennis she's only dreamed of before, beating defending champion Maria Sharapova and 2008 winner Ana Ivanovic en route to the championship match.
Here, a breakdown of their showdown to come, set for 3 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET).
Serena's to win: For all intents and purposes, this is Williams' Slam to win. She is a squeaky clean 8-0 against Safarova, including two meetings on green clay (in 2012 and 2013), in which she's lost a total of just six games in four sets played. They've never met on the red stuff.
The two have gone three sets in three of those eight meetings, however, including their most recent match in Beijing last year, Williams winning 6-1, 1-6, 6-2. Williams holds a startling 53-11 record in Paris, while Safarova is 17-10, six of those wins coming in the last two weeks.
Williams made her debut in a Grand Slam final at the age of 17 at the 1999 US Open, her seventh major. Safarova is playing in her 40th career Grand Slam.
Under the weather: The biggest X-factor in this match, however, is the general health of Williams, 33, who said she began feeling unwell after her third-round match against Victoria Azarenka. Moving sluggishly and curling up to ice packs provided at changeovers on Thursday, Williams skipped her post-semifinal media duties and then was a no-show for practice on Friday, again failing to meet the press.
She released a statement Friday evening via the tournament.
"I felt really terrible during the semis against Timea," Williams said in the statement. "I have some kind of flu, which makes it tough, because it's just a matter of resting and keeping hydrated. I'm just fighting that, trying to sweat it out."
It was at the Australian Open earlier this year that Williams was ill, as well, the American cutting her pre-final practice session short and later admitted to throwing up after the first set of her finals win there, where she defeated Sharapova.
"Lucie has been in great form here, and I know I'm going to have to play really well to win," Williams added in her statement. "At this point I just want to get better — it's hard to think about the match or winning another Grand Slam title right now."
Good on ya, Lucie: It really has been the best tournament of Safarova's life. She has six WTA titles to her name and is the first Czech woman to reach the Roland Garros final since Hana Mandlikova was champion back in 1981 — before Safarova was born.
Should she win, Safarova would rank third in terms of major appearances before winning the title, behind Marion Bartoli (47th appearance at Wimbledon 2013) and Jana Novotna (45th appearance at Wimbledon 1998). She'd also be just the third woman ranked outside the top 10 to win this event.
X's and O's: Williams, as usual, will look to be the aggressor, and even more so if she still feels so unwell, needing to keep points as short as possible, which isn't easy to do on Paris' slow red clay. Safarova has been the perfect mix of powerful and consistent in her run here, particularly against Sharapova, who battled a cough for the first week in Paris.
Williams will need her best serve to be in tact, as well, though that has suffered from an elbow injury that forced her to pull out in Rome three weeks ago.
More for the books: Williams remains three Slams shy of Steffi Graf's Open era record of 22 majors, and also seeks to become the first woman to win both the Australian and French Opens in one year since 2001, when fellow American Jennifer Capriati did so. Should she win, Williams will remain on track for her first-ever calendar year Slam in her career, which was last done by Graf, as well, in 1988.