Serena ‘ready’ to win the French Open

Originally published on: 17/05/12 00:00

The French Open has been Serena Williams’ least productive Grand Slam tournament, but the 30-year-old American will head to Roland Garros next week full of confidence following her best run on clay for years.

“I'm always ready to win the French Open,” Williams said. “I love Paris. It's my favorite city in the world and I hate leaving there. So I'm always ready to win the French Open and I never do. Hopefully this will be the 20th year in a row that I'm ready to win.”

It is in fact 10 years since Williams won the French Open. Since then she has made one semi-final (in 2003) and four quarter-finals (in 2004, 2007, 2009 and 2010). Williams’ power is less of a factor on clay than it is on quicker surfaces, though she has proved in recent weeks that she can still beat the best on it.

Williams went into this week’s Rome tournament unbeaten in 13 matches on clay this year. Having won the tournament in Charleston, where she overcame Sam Stosur in the semi-finals before beating Lucie Safarova in the final, Williams went on to win both her singles rubbers against Ukraine in the Fed Cup and then won last week’s title in Madrid. She beat three top 10 players in the Spanish capital in Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova and Caroline Wozniacki.

“I love Europe so much and being able to play here,  the whole swing, is really cool,” Williams said of her current schedule. As for playing on clay, Williams said she had “definitely developed a lot of confidence on it and I like it”. She added: “I’ve always liked it. I just haven’t won a tremendous amount of tournaments, even though my results have been pretty steady. But now I'm getting more wins.”

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