Health Is The Heart Of The Matter In Serena Williams-Lucie Safarova Final

— -- PARIS -- Serena Williams has played in 23 Grand Slam finals in her career and has won 19 times, more than every other woman in the Open era except for Steffi Graf. She has been ranked No. 1 for well over the past two years. She is 8-0 against her French Open final opponent,13th-seeded Lucie Safarova, who is playing in her very first Grand Slam final.

The question, however, is not Serena's considerable talent but her health. "Being in the final here in Paris means so much to me and it's very upsetting that I feel so lousy right now," she said in a release Friday.

Williams says she has been bothered by the flu this week, though that had already become quite apparent during Thursday's semifinal against Timea Bacsinszky. Serena was slow and woozy, failing to even move toward several drop shots and occasionally bending over her racket as if exhausted. She lost the first set and was down a break in the second before rallying to win. "I'm not sure how I got through the match."

She did not speak at a news conference afterward, saying that she "just kind of collapsed" and could not move and that she needed to see the tournament doctor instead. She stayed in her Paris apartment Friday rather than practice. She did not make herself available to the media but did release a statement.

"I think I have some kind of flu which makes it tough, because it's just a matter of resting and keeping hydrated -- there's not much else I can do. ... I've felt really cold so I'm just fighting that, trying to sweat it out. A doctor is coming to see me here at home in about 20 minutes and we'll see if he can do anything else to help but I don't think there's anything. It's just time. I need time and I obviously don't have a lot of it."

Her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, said in a TV interview that he thinks the illness probably reached its depths during the semifinal. "I think she's going to get better. If you were able to see what she did in the semifinal match, she will find a way to play at her best level."

That's another question. Will Williams play at her best level, as she usually has done late in matches here? And late in tournaments throughout her career? Or well below that level, as has been the case in the first set several times here?

Serena has lost the first set four times before rallying to win the match each time. That's a career first for her in a Grand Slam. The only previous time she lost three first sets and still won at a major was at the 1999 US Open, her first Grand Slam title, 16 long years ago.

Such play has been a pattern this year for Williams, who will turn 34 in September. She lost the first set twice at the Australian Open but came back to win each time -- and won the tournament. She also has lost the first set but won the match two times outside Slams this year. She has gone to three sets 11 times this year, winning them all.

Compare that to last year's US Open, when she never lost a set and never even lost more than three games in a set.

If Williams is not feeling 100 percent, though, her opponent might be a bit weary, as well. Safarova, who will play in the women's doubles final Sunday, will have played all but one of 11 days since May 27. She also played a 2-hour, 10-minute semifinal doubles match in 90-degree heat Friday.

"I felt kind of bad because our match got long today," doubles partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands said. "I was like, 'Hey, I wanted to limit this to two sets so Lucie can recover.'"

Williams says she doesn't like looking at draws because she doesn't want to look very far ahead in a tournament. But like most successful athletes, she clearly has been paying some attention to Safarova. Mattek-Sands said that when the doubles partners came off the court after a match earlier this week, Williams gave her a virtual play-by-play in the locker room. "I said, 'You remember more about that match than I do.'"

Given all that, who has the bigger advantage -- or disadvantage -- in the final: the woman who has been dealing with flu and high fever or the woman who has been playing day after day without a break?

"It's a tough one," Mattek-Sands said. "It's the finals, it's one more match. I think both will leave it all on the court. Serena has been there before, so she knows what's it's like. But at the same time, Lucie has nothing to lose, so she can go out there and rip it.

"It's really tough to gauge these kind of things. I think Lucie will go out there and really use her lefty forehand, her lefty serve against Serena. But Serena has her big serve, and that's the big point of her game. I think it will be a great match."

Considering the way this tournament has gone for Serena, no matter who wins, it promises to be interesting. "I just have to hope that I will be feeling a lot better and able to give my best on the court," Serena said in the release.