PARIS — For most of her two-hour match against Yulia Putintseva, Serena Williams looked awkward, flat-footed and strangely immobile. The temperatures were unseasonably chilly and the air thick with moisture, and after several days in a row on court, perhaps it was all adding up against the best women’s player in the world.
Something was clearly not right, and Williams was in considerable danger after losing the first set and facing a break point late in the second that, had she lost it, would have put the match precariously on her opponent’s racket.
But Williams won that point and went on to avoid disaster by coming back to beat the 60th-ranked Putintseva, 5-7, 6-4, 6-1, in a dicey quarterfinal match.