Tennis world awaits Serena’s health status for French Open

Welcome back to Paris, Serena. The tennis world can’t wait to find out exactly how that bothersome left knee is holding up.

Williams practiced at the French Open’s redesigned main stadium on Monday — alas, Court Philippe Chatrier’s retractable roof won’t be ready until next year — and will want to get some more work in over the coming days, given how little she’s played on clay courts.

As in: a total of just one match on the surface since last year’s tournament at Roland Garros. Forever, it seems, Williams has been the woman to beat on the Grand Slam stage, provided she is in the field and is healthy. No one really knows this time just how ready she is.

“We just don’t know her physical status at this point,”18-time major champion Chris Evert said. “She relies so much on the physicality of her game and her movement and her sprinting and just her court coverage and setting up those big shots.”

With the French Open set to start Sunday, the 10th-ranked Williams has played only nine matches in 2019.

Five were at the Australian Open in January, when she lost to Karolina Pliskova in the quarterfinals after blowing a 5-1, 40-30 lead in the third set and four match points in all.

She retired from a match at Indian Wells, citing an illness, then withdrew from tournaments in Miami and Rome, citing her knee.

“I haven’t played a ton of matches this year. Not my choice; just by force,”Williams said after her lone clay appearance, an opening victory at the Italian Open before she pulled out ahead of what would have been a match against her older sister, Venus.