Serena already eyeing return

Pregnant spectator in Paris aims to play Australia, coach says.

PARIS — Serena Williams was back on the Grand Slam scene Wednesday, only she was snacking on a piece of f r uit while s i t t i ng i n a shaded part of the stands at the French Open, watching her older sister Venus win in straight sets instead of playing a match herself.

About six months’ pregnant and offff the WTA tour for the rest of this season, Williams sounded blase about attending a major tournament as a spectator rather than a participant.

“It feels fifine. I don’t feel anything,” she said before leaving the Roland Garros grounds. “It’s just a part of my life.”

Oracene Price, the sisters’ mother, put it this way:

“It’s like any athlete: When you watch another player, you can see everything that they’re not doing and you want to get out there and do it yourself. That’s the way it is. She can’t wait to come back, though. Actually, she’s working toward it now.”

Serena’s coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, said Serena recently texted him to say she was going on court because “she wants to keep in contact with the racket and the ball.”

Mouratoglou added that Williams i s t alking about making it back in time to play the Australian Open in January.

Serena beat Venus for the Australian Open title this year while she was already pregnant. It was her 23rd Grand Slam title, most in the Open era and one shy of Margaret Court’s all-time record.

“I’m sure she feels the exc itement of being at a major and not having the pressure to play and prepare. Must be an interesting feeling, to say the least,” the 10th-seeded Venus said after taking 11 of the last 12 games and beating Kurumi Nara of Japan 6-3, 6-1 to get to the third round. But she knows exactly what it’s like out there, and she’s had a lot of success here.”

Serena has won the French Open three times, in 2002, 2013 and 2015.