PARIS -- Ashleigh Barty was left to reflect on what might have been after she bowed out the French Open second round to Serena Williams on Thursday.
Australia's No. 17 seed Barty impressed in the opening set against Williams but could not convert as she fell 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Court Philippe Chatrier at Roland Garros.
"Any time you get to play a champion like Serena, it's amazing," Barty said in her postmatch interview in Paris. "I mean, I played well. I feel like I wasn't really too much wrong.
"I was looking after my service games pretty well. And then I think early in the second set, in that game, at 1-0, [Serena] stepped it up a notch. You can't give someone of Serena's caliber that many looks at second serves and put yourself under the pump that much. I think there were only really a couple of games, a couple of my service games, but I don't think there was really a hell of a lot in that match."
Barty's defeat capped a mixed clay-court season for the 22-year-old. She was beaten by Caroline Wozniacki in the Madrid Open second round, before suffering an opening round loss to Maria Sharapova in Rome. She then retired hurt during her semifinal with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in Strasbourg.
"This clay-court season, we've played well and gone unrewarded a little bit," Barty said. "[I've] Played some good players. But at the end of the day, I gave it a crack and it wasn't enough."
It will be a short turnaround for Barty, who will head to the United Kingdom ahead of the grass-court season. She confirmed she will play at warm-up tournaments in Nottingham, Birmingham and Eastbourne before the season's third Grand Slam at Wimbledon.
She added: "I have a few days off just to rest and sort of wrap my head around the season of what we've had on the clay. But, yeah, it's [grass court season] only a week away. So it's exciting."