Paris (AFP)

It's a disappointment and not a poor performance: still hampered by an Achilles tendon that has been causing her pain since the US Open, Serena Williams put a very premature end, Wednesday before the second round, to her career at Roland -Garros which is being played this year in climatic conditions that it tastes little.

Otherwise, the second round was swallowed without particular difficulty by the favorites Rafael Nadal, Dominic Thiem and Simona Halep.

It was however fatal to the finalist of the last US Open Victoria Azarenka.

“Achilles tendon is a real injury that you don't want to play with, because it's not good if it gets worse. I didn't want to come to that, while I still have a chance that it heals, "said the 39-year-old American after giving up playing against Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova (157th).

The 9th in the world has suffered from an elongation in this tendon since the semi-final in Flushing Meadows lost 3 weeks ago.

Two days after this defeat, she withdrew from the tournament in Rome which served as preparation for Roland Garros and adaptation to clay.

Instead, she prepared in France with her trainer Patrick Mouratoglou.

"I'm not 100% physically, but I don't know any athlete who feels in perfect physical shape. I wouldn't play if I didn't think I could perform well," she explained before the start of the Internationals. France.

Titled three times at Roland-Garros (2002, 2013 and 2015) where she made her debut in 1998, she did not show extreme enthusiasm at the idea of ​​playing on Parisian clay this year due to sanitary conditions (the absence of a bubble like in New York and the obligation to stay in a hotel chosen by the organization but not reserved for the only players did not pack it) and climatic conditions much colder and humid for this fall edition of a tournament used to sunny spring days.

- "I hate cold" -

"I hate the cold. The cold and me, that's two," she admitted just before the start of the tournament, seeing her "Achilles heel" there.

"But I do with it, I take it on the safe side," she immediately added.

Yet on Wednesday Serena Williams appeared firm in her decision to end without even playing her 18th Roland Garros: "I need four to six weeks, at least two weeks to do nothing".

Eliminated in the third round last year, she had already withdrawn from Roland-Garros before her round of 16 in 2018, and had missed the 2017 edition due to pregnancy.

But the champion, who has built her record over two decades with a tennis and a physique too powerful for her opponents, remains relentlessly among the favorites of every tournament she plays.

And as long as it is so, this mother, who has already started her conversion into a business manager in fashion, does not seem inclined to retire from tennis.

"Paris, I love you and don't worry: I'll be back," she announced on social networks a few minutes after her package.

For his part, Thiem had to save 3 set points in a match that he finally controlled against Jack Sock 6-1, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6).

"I wanted to save those set points to avoid a fourth set. It is very important to save energy in the first laps," commented the Austrian who won his first Grand Slam title a little over two weeks at the US Open.

"I'm still riding the New York wave. Of course at some point, fatigue will catch up with me. But I imagine being focused on Roland Garros hides the fatigue and everything. I hope. be able to hold out as long as possible, "he added.

Nadal left only 4 games to Mackenzie McDonald (236th), devoured 6-1, 6-0, 6-3, and Halep dismissed Irina-Camelia Begu 6-3, 6-4.

© 2020 AFP