Serena Williams sick as a dog after sampling pet's gourmet treat

Tennis star Serena Williams served up a problem for herself after deciding to sample the gourmet dog food she ordered for her pet at an Italian hotel.

Williams - in Rome for the Italian Open - decided the salmon and rice dish she ordered for her Yorkshire Terrier Chip looked good enough to eat.

Within two hours, however, the 34-year-old had to make a dash to the toilet to be sick.

Williams posted a video on Snapchat showing the dish she ordered for her pet.

Noting how good it looked, she tells the camera: "I ate a spoonful. Don't judge me!"

Williams says the bite tasted weird, "a little bit like a house-cleaner thing", but she ate it anyway.

She says within two hours she had to run to the bathroom. She recovered in time to beat fellow American Christina McHale 7-6, 6-1 in the third round on Thursday.

The dog appeared fine watching Williams from her player's box.

Williams says of the doggy menu: "I don't think it's consumable for humans. They should have wrote that!"