Serena Williams is getting recognized for her sick play. Unfortunately for the world's top female tennis player, "sick" is not being used in the cool, slang sense.
Once again, Williams had to overcome illness - the flu, this time - to defeat Timea Bacsinszky 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 in the semifinals of the French Open. Williams has two days to recover before she meets Lucie Safarova in Saturday's finals at Roland Garros.
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"I don't think I've ever been this sick," Williams said after the match, according to ESPN. "I didn't expect to win that. I can't believe I won."
ESPN reported that Williams said he came down with the flu after her third-round match and has been under the weather ever since.
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It's the third Grand Slam event in the last four on the calendar that Williams has been sick. ESPN also reported in January that Williams had to cut short her practice session for the Australian Open final against Maria Sharapova because of a cold she had been battling the previous week.
"I had a false start (this morning)," she said in a statement released by the WTA at the time. "I wasn't feeling really well. I've been sick with a cold all week, and I got better, then I got worse the morning."
And who can forget her epic doubles appearance at Wimbledon last summer in which she couldn't even bounce a tennis ball, much less get a serve over the net?
SI.com first reported Williams' story of the bizarre scene:
"Her Wimbledon explanation: After losing meekly the previous Saturday in a third-round singles match to 25th seed Alizé Cornet, Williams took to her bed for the next three days, feeling dehydrated, dizzy and feverish, 'just in my room, sweating like crazy.' She was not examined by a doctor. Venus urged her repeatedly to pull out of their Tuesday doubles match. 'Begged me not to play,' Serena says.
Williams also pulled out of Dubai this year as a carryover from her Australian Open bug, and although she was healthy on her way to last year's U.S. Open title, she subsequently became ill in her next match at the second round of the Wuhan Open with a viral illness.
And Williams' comment that she doesn't think she's ever been as sick as she was against Bacsinszky is a mouthful, considering Williams told reporters in 2011 she had been "on my death bed at one point -- quite literally" as a result of cutting her foot on glass in a freak accident at a restaurant, as CNN reported.
With that kind of medical history, Williams might be included to hire a battery of doctors for every Grand Slam she plays. She presses on, however, without them.
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