Serena Williams' major announcement after loss at Italian Open

Serena Williams has changed her plans for her French Open preparations after a first-up loss at the Italian Open on Wednesday.

Williams crashed out at the first hurdle in Rome, her first match in nearly three months since her semi-final defeat at the Australian Open.

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On Thursday, the 39-year-old and coach Patrick Mouratoglou announced that Williams will now play at the Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma, an event they had originally planned on skipping.

"Change of plans," Mouratoglou tweeted.

"Serena hasn't been competing for a while, and we want to get as many matches under our belt as possible before Roland-Garros.

"So we're adding the Emilia-Romagna Open to our schedule.

"We’ll be back in action next week."

Williams needs one more grand slam title to match the all-time record of Australian great Margaret Court.

She will head to the French Open an outside chance to capture career grand slam 24.

"It's tough to have a first match on clay," said Williams after losing 7-6 (8/6), 7-5 to Argentina's Nadia Podoroska in Rome.

"But I usually don't take this much time off on a clay court season, so usually I play like a Charleston or a Madrid or somewhere.

"So my season doesn't usually start this late on clay. But the training isn't for nothing, so I know that it's just a matter of time.

"Maybe I do need a few more matches, so I'm going to try to figure that out with my coach and my team and see what we would like to do."

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The eighth seed found it tough going against Podoroska, losing in just under two hours to the 44th-ranked Argentine.

"Overall, it was good for me to play such a clay court player on clay today, but it's a little frustrating," she conceded.

"Yeah, just filling out the game, finding the rhythm. Even sliding and confidence with that, with movement, and just not wanting to break my ankle when I moved.

"That's always like a little struggle in the first two matches, and then I'm raring to go."

Organisers announced on Thursday that Venus Williams has also accepted a wild-card invitation.

The clay-court event in Parma, which was added to the calendar amid the coronavirus pandemic, starts on Sunday.

with agencies

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