PARIS -- That Serena Williams is again the top-ranked player in the world, having sunk as low as No. 140 with injuries in 2006, speaks as much to the current unsettled nature of women's tennis as to the American's own formidable physical and mental strengths.
Fact is, no single player has emerged to fill the vacuum left by the surprise retirement last May of Justine Henin, the seven-time Grand Slam champion who at age 25 became the first woman to walk away from the sport while ranked No. 1.
The current No. 2, Dinara Safina, showed her mental frailties by collapsing 6-0, 6-3 to Williams in the Australian Open final last month in a 59-minute anticlimax where the Russian, by her own admission, was "just a ballboy."
Aside from Williams, the only other woman in the top six to have won a Grand Slam singles title is her own sister, Venus, who has seven to Serena's 10. The continued absence of Maria Sharapova, the former No. 1 who has now slumped to 16th, is sorely felt. Even the Russian doesn't know for certain when her injured right shoulder might be ready to return to the tour's rigors.
So there's a distinct feeling that Williams is back on top as much by default as by her own considerable efforts and talents. The lack of challengers with her consistency also means that you have to fancy her chances at the next major hurdle on the tennis horizon: the French Open.
Williams is in Paris this week for an indoor hard-court tournament, the Open GDF Suez. She owns an apartment in France's capital and loves being able to walk downstairs for crusty croissants and wander anonymously through the fresh food markets. Toss her a "merci" and she lobs a "de rien" -- say nothing of it -- right back in French.
"Oh, I love it. I can totally live here full time," Williams gushed to reporters.
"It's much easier than hanging out in the United States," she said. "I like the fact that I can kind of be myself. I do whatever I want to do and don't have to worry about being recognized. I can just live more of a normal life and it's really cool."
Perhaps that home-away-from-home feeling of comfort will make a difference at Roland Garros, the major where she has had least success, with just one title in 2002 in her only French Open final.
In 2003, the French was where her "Serena Slam" of four consecutive major titles came to a bitter end, before a hostile crowd that cheered her mistakes in a riveting semifinal match against Henin, an experience that reduced the normally solid Williams to tears at her postmatch news conference.
And last year, she was bundled out in the third round, her worst Roland Garros performance since 1999.
If Williams can now find the way to win again on the heavy red clay then tongues will really start wagging that 2009 could be the year that she completes the Holy Grail of a Grand Slam of wins in all four majors -- the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open -- in a single calendar year.
Such a title chase could do wonders for reinjecting interest into the women's game, which has looked flat in comparison to the dizzying heights of excellence and suspense reached by Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in their battle for supremacy on the men's side.
