Djokovic: Serena Williams the greatest female athlete

But the internet is filled with conspiracy theories that she was born a man. Theories that Williams is well aware of as she wrote an open letter to her mother, thanking her for her support over the issue, last year.

While Williams is secure in her body now, she has had to deal with body shamers in the past.

The last time Serena Williams played a Grand Slam match, Andy Murray was the fellow singles world No 1, Maria Sharapova was serving a ban, Roger Federer had not won a Major in around five years and Jelena Ostapenko was a Latvian teenager who hadn’t lifted a single tennis trophy as yet. But as Williams beat Kristyna Pliskova in straight sets, fans were even more excited about what she was wearing.

She said recently: “One minute, everything’s going according to plan, and then I’m being wheeled off for surgery”.

She then gestured to her bicep and said, “This is me, and this is my weapon and machine”.

“Oh God, I’ll never be a size four”, she declares.

“I feel like everything else will fall into place”. I always wanted to be a superhero, and it’s kind of my way of being a superhero. I want to get beyond there.

“I don’t know [about winning the title]. I’ve got to just try harder.’ And Serena came out”, Williams told the crowd before breaking into relieved laughter.

“I think she’s not quite at the level she was when she was at her best, but that’s normal”.

This tournament felt as if it were holding its collective breath for her slightly rain-delayed debut on Day 3, a comeback within a comeback that began three months ago with a Fed Cup doubles match and continued with a pair of wins at Indian Wells.

Seemingly unaffected by the occasion, Barty broke the 23-time major champion early in the second set to surge further ahead before Williams willed her way back into the enthralling contest on Court Philippe-Chatrier.

A fifth ace of the contest won her the set. “It’s because I want to get home to see Olympia, because I have been here all day”.

Things looked a little dicey in the first set, with Williams struggling to return simple shots and looking generally tentative.

When Williams served out the victory with a backhand victor down the line, she raised both arms.

She’ll now face No. 17 Ashleigh Barty, of Australia, in the second round on Thursday. The athlete was bed-ridden for six weeks and still managed to come back to the game a victor. Next came a doubles match with older sister Venus for the US Fed Cup team in February.

VideoThe tennis career of Bernard Tomic has taken another freakish chapter, with the Aussie losing out to a player who drove more than ten hours to make the match. I miss playing tennis. “This is me, and this is my weapon and machine”.