Serena checks in from an insecure location

Eleven years and 39 Grand Slam endeavors ago, a 16-year-old turned up at the Australian Open with a ranking of No. 53, beat No. 9 Irina Spirlea in the first round and said, among other things, “I have never feared anyone.”

Eleven years and 39 Grand Slam endeavors later, a 27-year-old turned up at Wimbledon with a ranking of No. 2, improved to 39-0 in Grand Slam first rounds, and then Serena Williams discussed, of all things, vulnerabilities.

Eyeballs pressed against the world’s fishbowl glass don’t tend to ascribe such inconveniences to such a life force -- “They see me like Superwoman,” she said -- but she reported some unmistakable “LSE,” her term for “low self-esteem.”

In a small room with four reporters rather than the usual auditorium with 40, she came off as a free-flowing, human conversationalist who’d make fine cafe company.

“Actually, I suffer a little bit from LSE,” she said. “I’m a little insecure and I’m working on it. . . . A lot of females that are in a position where they’re really successful might just go home and be a little insecure.”

Having followed Roger Federer on Centre Court, and having worn her “trench-coat dress” she said “sticks with my Marilyn Monroe-Dorothy Dandridge theme” -- her “ ‘50s inspiration” -- she seemed ever impenetrable in her 188th Grand Slam match as she fended off 26-year-old Grand Slam debutante Neuza Silva of Portugal, 6-1, 7-5.

Yet, she said her French Open quarterfinal loss to Svetlana Kuznetsova, 7-5 in the third set, left her “more disappointed than normal, actually.”

She had felt more a part of Paris, and less booed, she said. And when a reporter suggested her status as a property owner in the 7th Arrondissement might have contributed to her sense of belonging, she entertained the thought. “People are really calm” when she’s out and about, she said. “That’s why I like it there. No one harasses you like in the U.S. No one runs up to you. No one takes pictures.”

Having led, 3-1, in the third, and knowing now that Kuznetsova won the title over a tremulous Dinara Safina, Williams placed it in her top three career regrets. “I literally choked,” she said, grabbing her throat.

Her forthcoming memoir, due out around the U.S. Open, reportedly sets out with frankness uncommon for such projects. She said she still feels emotional when she rereads chapters about the Indian Wells ruckus of 2001 -- when the crowd booed her after her sister, Venus, withdrew from their semifinal one hour beforehand -- and about her sister Yetunde’s death in 2003.

“A very, very difficult moment in my life,” she said, noting that Yetunde had been her assistant, a daily presence in her life. “I had to tell my mom -- never done anything so hard in my life. I never did anything so hard.”

Eleven years beyond that first Grand Slam, she’s long since weary of her least favorite question, “How does it feel to play your sister?” She’s fine with being No. 2 behind Safina for now because it means she doesn’t have to play No. 3 Venus Williams until a Grand Slam final.

She said she got addicted to HGTV for a while and even repainted some furniture in her Bel Air home until she got too tired. A newfound Twitter fanatic, she tweeted excitedly from Game 5 of the NBA Finals in Orlando even as a self-proclaimed Miami Heat fan. And she told of going to Versailles for the first time with Venus, falling asleep and waking sometime after the train had stopped.

Thirty-nine Grand Slams later, she’s still playing more than viably.

“You know, I’m really insatiable,” she said. “I always want more.”

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chuck.culpepper@yahoo.com