Serena Williams on Saturday, upon winning her first French Open singles title since 2002. Getty Images

Microwave pizza takes longer than the tennis matches of Serena Williams. It feels a little excessive to refer to these engagements as "matches," considering that most of them consist of Serena Williams arriving, and then, on the opposite side, an unconditional surrender. Williams's semifinal versus Sara Errani in the French Open the other day lasted 46 minutes—that's about 1½ episodes of "Seinfeld"—during which Williams won the first set 6-0, the second 6-1. Errani, a finalist at the French in 2012, hit only two winners in the whole deal. This is the part where I'm supposed to remind you that we're talking about the semifinal of one of the most prestigious tournaments in the game, in which the athletes who reach the semifinal are presumably, you know, pretty good. And yet Williams, the No. 1 women's tennis player in the world, breezes through her competition faster than you or I get through airport security.

For Saturday's French women's final, Williams met the No. 2 player in the world, Maria Sharapova. Normally it is a big whoop when two top players meet in a Grand Slam—think of the rapture that met Friday's men's semi between eventual champion Rafael Nadal and No. 1 Novak Djokovic—but there was little pre-match suspense for Serena v. Maria. Sharapova, the winner of four grand slams, had not beaten Williams—anywhere, on any surface—in nine years, a run of 12 matches. In August, Williams steamrolled Sharapova in the gold-medal round of the Summer Olympics, 6-0, 6-1, making Sharapova look as if she were playing with a spatula. Entering the French final, Williams had won 30 consecutive matches, the longest winning streak of her career. At the moment, there is not an earthly gap between Williams and the rest of the elite in women's tennis. Serena is her own planet.

Sharapova did better than most people expected Saturday, which is a weird thing to say, because she lost in straight sets, and was the defending champion. But this is how things are at the moment for the field versus Serena Williams. The losing is assumed. The goal is dignity. Win seven or eight games. Survive more than an hour. Sharapova did both of those things in a 6-4, 6-4 match that lasted a solid one hour, 46 minutes—a respectable 3½ Seinfelds—and she was showered with praise. When Williams is focused and her best physically, the outcome is not in doubt. Already among the greatest tennis players of all time, Williams is playing the tennis of her life.

It was different last year in Paris. Williams lost in the first round at the French, the first time she'd ever lost in the opening round of a Grand Slam, falling in three sets to Virginie Razzano. Overall Williams hadn't won a singles title at Roland Garros in 11 years, not since her 2002 victory over her big sister Venus. But the early exit in 2012 seemed to rally Williams, who had recently begun working with a new coach, Patrick Mouratoglou. She ripped through the summer, winning Wimbledon, Olympic gold, and the U.S. Open. Since last year's French defeat, she is 74-3. Here's your tennis analysis: That is awesome.

Williams revamped her game for this tournament—as always, she was physical and pounding, but now there was better fitness and lateral movement along that dusty red limestone. Of course, Williams doesn't out-finesse anyone; she overwhelms. She lost one set in Paris. If there was a moment that encapsulated Saturday's final, it arrived at 1-1 in the second set, with Sharapova serving at 30-30. Sharapova struck a nasty forehand down the line to Williams's left—a put-away shot that most opponents would have netted or missed altogether. Williams managed to slide and stretch to get a racket on it, but then she put a little something extra on it as well, flicking a backhand return that was almost rude in its angle. A couple of strokes later, Sharapova lost the point. In the aftermath, the NBC analyst John McEnroe was still awe-struck that Williams had managed to chase down Sharapova's forehand.

"Against anyone else, that would have been a winner," McEnroe said. "That's the difference."

Women's tennis gets a bad rap for its lack of rivalries and competitiveness, and this is partly true and partly untrue, but at the moment Serena Williams is the greatest show in the sport, on either side. Nobody dominates like she does, not even Nadal, who rolled to his record eighth men's title 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 over David Ferrer on Sunday in a match that will be remembered more for the flare-carrying protester who crashed the court before being tackled by dapper French security. At 31, Williams is just a couple of years removed from a blood clot in her lung she says she was lucky to survive, but she has relocated her prime, and added on a jet pack. Her French title is her 16th major tournament singles title of her career (she also has 13 in doubles and two in mixed doubles), putting her two behind both Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. She might get those by the second week of September.

Williams has at times struggled with her composure, which she's acknowledged, but it also used to be fashionable to give her a hard time about her perceived lack of engagement, as if the idea that a professional tennis player with non-tennis interests was somehow bad for the sport, a complaint that always seemed to be abruptly dismissive of Williams's hard work. But it's become clear that Williams's ability to navigate in and out of the game has contributed to her staying power. Tennis does not have to be the end-all be-all, even for someone who plays it better than anyone. But don't for a minute question the commitment of Serena Williams, not the Williams who spoke French in her trophy ceremony Saturday, not the Williams who climbed her way back to the top of a game she obviously loves. She is happy, she is hungry, she wants more. If you have the misfortune of facing her in the next few months, I got nothing for you. Good luck.

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