PARIS -- A year ago, Serena Williams survived a cathartic, chaotic fortnight and won her third French Open title. Five of her seven matches went the three-set distance.
This year at Roland Garros, the WTA's No. 1-ranked player, curiously, has been a complete stranger to drama. After thoroughly demolishing Elina Svitolina 6-1, 6-1 in a fourth-round match Wednesday, Williams has now won four matches here without surrendering a set.
It almost takes the fun out of it.
Going back to her triumph in Rome, Williams has won nine straight matches -- all in straight sets -- and hasn't experienced that losing feeling in more than two months. It was all over in 62 minutes, and there wasn't a scrap of evidence that suggested she isn't the overwhelming favorite to win a fourth French championship.
"Yeah, I feel OK," she said afterward, sounding almost sleepy. "That was a better match for me."
Asked what she's been doing the last few waterlogged days, Williams said she briefly hit some balls indoors Tuesday and took a nap.
"I don't know what I did the day before," she added, "probably something similar."
That's what a fortnight of rain will do to you. Or maybe Williams is just bored. She'll need to crank up the adrenaline soon, because she might need to play four consecutive days to win it all.
After two days of steady rain ruined the schedule, all four of the fourth-round women's matches from the top half of the draw were played simultaneously. Williams fared better than her compatriots Venus Williams and Madison Keys.
The No. 9-seeded Venus was a 6-2, 6-4 loser to No. 8 Timea Bacsinszky, and No. 15 Keys fell 7-6 (4), 6-3 to unseeded Dutch player Kiki Bertens.
Nevertheless, there was another American in the quarters: Shelby Rogers was up 5-3 in the first set on No. 4 seed Garbine Muguruza but ultimately lost 7-5, 6-3 on Wednesday. Her ranking will improve dramatically, to No. 59 from No. 108.. This created a modest moment in history: The last time more than one American woman made the quarters at the French Open was 2004, when Jennifer Capriati, and Venus and Serena Williams all got through to the final eight.
That, of course, was a dozen years ago, which underlines Serena Williams' sometimes underappreciated longevity.
At the age of 34, she finds herself in prime position to tie Steffi Graf for the Open-era record of 22 Grand Slam singles titles. Two of the biggest threats to her defense of the French title -- No. 3 seed Angelique Kerber and No. 5 Victoria Azarenka -- were removed from her half of the draw early on.
And a little later Wednesday, another gift arrived. Unseeded Yulia Putintseva, ranked No. 60 among WTA players, took out No. 12 seed Carla Suarez Navarro 7-5, 7-5.
Williams and Putintseva are scheduled to play their quarterfinal match Thursday. Williams has won their matchups twice, most recently this past March at Indian Wells. One spicy subtext: Putintseva was once coached by Williams' current coach, Patrick Mouratoglou.
"She's a tough player," Williams said. "She's really hungry. I feel like she gives 200 percent on every single point. You know, she's a fighter."
On Wednesday, 46 hours after her match was scheduled to be played, Williams finally walked onto Court Philippe Chatrier. The ease with which she beat the No. 20 seed -- and a quarterfinalist here a year ago -- was, frankly, surprising.
Each player achieved eight break points, but in the crucible of those decisive moments, Williams won six and Svitolina could only manage one.
Meanwhile, it was a good tournament for Venus Williams, who turns 36 next month. She equaled her best effort here in a decade with a surprising renaissance. Bacsinszky, a formidable player who sometimes flies below the radar, reached the semifinals a year ago, losing to Serena Williams in three sets.
Keys' loss, though, had to be a disappointment. The 21-year-old American had a terrific 2015 season, reaching the semifinals at the Australian Open and the quarters at Wimbledon. Seen as a possible future world No. 1, Keys now has two fourth-round efforts in the majors. Clay is probably the worst surface for her formidable weapons of thunderous serve and forehand, but falling to No. 58-ranked Bertens is still a tough blow to absorb.
Bertens was the one who took out Kerber -- Kerber could have been a major obstacle to Serena Williams after she beat Williams in the Australian Open final -- in the first round. Into her first major quarterfinal, Bertens will play Bacsinszky on Thursday.
Remember Williams' flame-out at the US Open, when a semifinal loss to Roberta Vinci ended her chances of achieving the rare single-season Grand Slam? Williams took that loss hard and didn't play another match in 2015. It became fashionable to wonder if she could summon the motivation to stay on top of the game.
That, in retrospect, seems silly.
"I think she's played amazing," said Venus Williams, sounding like an older sister. "A lot of finals, not as many wins as she wanted. To be able to play that well, day in and day out, is a major accomplishment."
In three or four days' time, we should be seeing her 22nd major accomplishment.