Serena Williams, playing the 1000th WTA match of her career, crashed out of the Italian Open on Wednesday with a second round defeat to Argentina’s Nadia Podoroska.
This comes weeks before her bid to make history at Roland Garros.
Williams, 39, lost 7-6 (8/6), 7-5 on her return after nearly three months away to a player 15 years her junior who was a surprise semi-finalist at last year’s Roland Garros.
“You know, it’s tough to have a first match on clay,” Williams, who has won 73 WTA titles over the past two decades, said.
She said; “It was definitely kind of good to go the distance and to try to be out there, but clearly I can do legions better.
“Maybe I do need a few more matches, so I’m going to try to figure that out with my coach and my team and see what we would like to do.”
Williams, a four-time Rome winner and 23-time Grand Slam champion, had not played since her semi-final defeat to Japan’s Naomi Osaka in the Australian Open this year.
And the eighth seed found it tough going, losing in just under two hours to the 44th-ranked Argentine.
“Overall, it was good for me to play such a clay court player on clay today, but it’s a little frustrating.
“Yeah, just filling out the game, finding the rhythm. Even sliding and confidence with that, with movement, and just not wanting to break my ankle when I moved.
“That’s always like a little struggle in the first two matches, and then I’m raring to go,” She stated.
The early exit is a blow three weeks before the French Open in Paris on May 30 where the American continues her bid to equal Australia’s Margaret Court’s record of 24 Grand Slam trophies.
Despite a battling performance Williams could not wear down the 24-year-old who broke twice in the first set.
Podoroska forced a tie-break with an ace and squandered three set points before sealing the set.
In the second, Williams was trailing 5-2 but held and broke the Argentine to love while she served for the match to level at 5-5.