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Paris - Serena Williams rates the French Open as physically the toughest of the four Grand Slam tournaments but, despite an injury-hit year, she feels she is ready to win for a second time in Paris, eight years after her first victory.
On the face of it, the American diva is facing an uphill battle as she has played just two tournaments since winning the Australian Open in January, losing to Jelena Jankovic in Rome and Nadia Petrova in Madrid.
But the signs are there that she is out to re-establish her claycourt credentials with several factors whetting her appetite.
Firstly, the French Open is the only one of the four majors that she has not won more than once and a triumph on June 5 would give her a 13th major title, taking her one past her childhood idol Billie Jean King.
It would also leave her halfway to achieving the fabled calendar year Grand Slam, last achieved by Steffi Graf in 1988, with her two favourite events - Wimbledon and the US Open to come.
And if that was not enough, sister Venus is back up to number two in the world, the first time the two sisters have filled the top two spots since May 2003, and they could meet in the final as they last did here in 2002.
Williams, who will turn 29 in September, arrived at her Paris apartment early after her Madrid exit and has been hard at practice on the Roland Garros courts.
Her early exits in Rome and Madrid, she said, were to be expected given her inactivity, but the matches she played during those tournaments were enough she feels to set her up for a strong run in Paris.
"I feel good and I don't feel any pressure," she said at Roland Garros on Friday.
"Actually in Rome I felt really good and in Madrid I played a long match and I was able to recover the next day and was actually able to win the doubles there, which was kind of cool and get even more matches.
"I didn't go into Rome especially thinking I would do that well and I felt okay. It really gave me a confidence booster."
Also in her favour is the fact that currently the competition is in disarray.
The Russians are struggling, with the two finalists from last year, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Dinara Safina badly short of form.
Title-holder Kuznetsova is in free-fall having won just four matches in total at her past five tournaments, while Safina, who was world number one a year ago, has played barely a half dozen games since returning from a serious back injury.
Glamour girl Maria Sharapova is also taking it one match at a time as she struggles to bounce back from yet another injury - this time to her elbow.
World number three Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark has yet to show any real form on clay, while Serbia's Jelena Jankovic, although playing well of late, still has to produce her best at a Grand Slam tournament.
The big question mark will surround the form of four-time champion Justine Henin as she continues with the comeback she launched at the start of the year.
When the Belgian retired in May 2008, she was the world number one and the unquestionable queen of the claycourts. Many feel that next week she can take up where she left off.
But her hopes of a seventh Grand Slam title have been hit by a broken finger on her left hand sustained in training and a bout of sinusitis which she blamed for her first round exit in Madrid to eventual winner Aravane Rezai of France.
"It's been difficult, I would say, in the last few weeks," she said. "I feel a lot better.
"It's true that about 10 days ago, even a week ago, I was not at the top, but only able to start practicing last weekend. So it's less than a week.
"But now I feel better and better. The energy is coming back, the stamina. Of course, I need to take care of myself, because I was a bit weakened by this, but now I'm ready to enter into this tournament."
With Belgium's other comeback queen Kim Clijsters out of the picture due to injury, that leaves older sister Venus as possibly the biggest threat to Serena's Paris coronation, if she can get over her distaste for clay.
