Williams calls win among her best

PARIS – When someone has won as many significant matches and titles as Serena Williams – her Grand Slam trophy count now stands at 20 – it can be hard to sort them by degree of difficulty or order of importance.

She puts her 2015 French Open title high on the list.

“It’s hard. I need to sit down and, like, rank them,” she told a group of reporters. “This is up there, because I was not at my best.”

Hours earlier, she had beaten Lucie Safarova 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-2 in a seesaw final, despite dealing with an illness that Williams said made her consider pulling out of the tournament.

She fell behind 2-0 in the third set against Safarova before taking the last six games. In four other matches at Roland Garros, Williams lost the first set.

“I just kept thinking, ‘I’m not going to give up. I’m not going to stop. I’m just going to do the best I can.’ And it just really kind of goes to show that old adage of ‘never give up,’ ” she said.

Associated Press