Among the many highs for Serena Williams, there were also some infrequent lows.
And one of those less glamorous moments came at the French Open in 2019, where a surprise early exit would lead to a chain of consequences that would leave another tennis star rather unhappy.
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When Williams was sent home after a third round defeat to then 20-year-old Sofia Kenin, she was unsurprisingly not in the best of moods.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion made 34 unforced errors during her loss to unseeded Kenin as she struggled to get to grips with the game.
Williams, who has the most majors in the open era, was also chasing the chance to equal Margaret Court’s 24 Grand Slams.
After the defeat, a dejected Williams had to fulfil her media obligations and was desperate to get them done as soon as possible.
According to French newspaper L’Equipe, Williams told a tournament official, “Put me in another room, smaller, but now” referring to the press conference theaters.
It led to the official at Roland Garros telling Dominic Thiem, who was fulfilling his media obligations in one room, to end his press conference early to make way for Williams.
The Swiss had just beaten Pablo Cuevas in the third round and was preparing for his opponent, Gael Monfils in the fourth round.
Thiem hit back at the official at the time of the incident.
“What the hell? But it’s a joke, really. What’s the point of that, that I have to leave the room because she’s coming?” he said.
Guy Forget, the tournament director at the time, issued an apology to Thiem, who won the US Open in 2020.
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“Every player has to wait. It shows a bad personality, in my opinion,” Thiem later told reporters.
“I wasn’t angry or frustrated. Maybe for a couple of minutes or so. It is just the principle.
“It doesn’t matter if it is me who sits in there, even if a junior is in there.
“I am 100% sure Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal would never do something like that.”
Roger Federer offered his opinion on the situation at the time, aiming blame at those who allowed this situation to even occur.
“I don’t know what went wrong but something went wrong for this to happen,” the Swiss 20-time Grand Slam champion said.
“If I would have lost today against Leonardo Mayer, I would let him go first or decide when he wants to go to press as he’s got a next match. My next match is far, far away. So that’s just the way you go about it.
“There must have been a misunderstanding, or maybe they should have kept Serena still in the locker room, not waiting here in the press centre.”
Annabelle Croft, a former world No.24 and now tennis commentator, slammed Williams at the time, claiming that she should have just waited.
“She should be made to wait an extra five minutes until finished. Had it been a role reversal, there would have been absolute uproar,” she said on EuroSport at the time.
“It’s just appalling. I think he’s owed an apology to be honest.”
Later, Thiem would actually extend an olive branch to Williams, making it clear that it was likely not her fault but the fault of the organisers.
“Probably it was not Serena’s mistake,” he told reporters a month later
“I find her achievements unbelievable, sensational. I would like to make amends with her in Wimbledon or the US Open mixed doubles.
“In retrospect, it was funny that such an organisational mistake happened at a Grand Slam tournament. What I do not understand is that it blew up so much.”
So no hard feelings in the end.
