I was horrendous, says Serena

By Pritha Sarkar

PARIS (Reuters) - Never one to digest defeat easily, Serena Williams summed up her French Open quarter-final performance against Justine Henin as "hideous and horrendous" on Tuesday.

The American had arrived with great expectations of adding to her tally of eight grand slam crowns after her unexpected surge to the title at the Australian Open in January while ranked 81st in the world.

But facing an opponent who had won the French Open title in three of the past four years, Williams' game unraveled in spectacular style.

"All she had to do was show up ... I don't think I've ever played so bad in the quarter-finals of a grand slam," the eighth seed said after the 6-4 6-3 defeat by the world number one.

"Everything was going wrong. Usually I don't hit in the net, like I did so many times today. It was very frustrating.

"I was just making all the errors and just playing like a maniac.

"I am always saying I want to peak at the right times but I didn't have any peaks today. I've never played so hideous and horrendous, and all those other words I can use to describe my play today."

The match had been billed as a 'grudge re-match' after the duo's last outing in Paris, in the semi-finals in 2003, ended in acrimony.

Williams had been booed off court and the American later broke down in tears as she accused Henin of "lying and fabricating" following a controversial point in the match.

On Tuesday, Williams was left agitated by her own meltdown and slammed her racket in frustration early in the second set as she struggled to stem the flow of errors.

"Sometimes you've got to just step back and say, 'Okay, try this, try that, or try Plan B'. But I think my Plan B was to make errors," she said with a wry smile.

"Nothing really went right for me this morning and it just continued on through the match."