French Open 2019 - Serena Williams was never going to win Roland Garros - Patrick Mouratoglou

The 23-time Grand Slam champion was second best throughout against the youngster, who had not even been born when the veteran first played this even in 1998.

Williams has been plagued by injury problems and her long-time coach says that it was likely that she would have lost in the fourth round, even if she had beaten Kenin.

“First of all, she knew she was not coming to this tournament being prepared the way she wanted to because of the big injury in Miami,” he told Eurosport.

“For many weeks she was not able to do anything, because she had to recover, so the time she had to prepare was much too short.

“She did her best, she really tried hard and she really wanted to compete and that’s why she was here at Roland-Garros but obviously I think, and people who know tennis well can see, that from the first round she was not moving well enough to possibly be a winner here.

“She lost the match because her opponent played a great match – she was consistent from the first ball to the last one and she didn’t miss much, was aggressive and played the perfect match.

“Honestly, if Serena didn’t lose this one she would probably lose next round, or when the top players would have been the other side of the court. Of course it’s a disappointment, but in a way it had to happen – she was just not ready.”