Serena Williams - French Open Women's Tennis Players

Serena Williams is, without a doubt, hard on the comeback trail and fans and rivals alike will be thrilled to see this powerful former world number one make her way slowly but surely up the WTA ranking table.

In an unprecedented show of skill, mental strength and awesome ability Williams has climbed from her dismal 2006 year end ranking of 95 to 7 in 2007, and she is currently ranked 8^th (7 April 2008) having only played three events in the 2008 season.

This remarkable woman has claimed eight grand slam singles titles, a maiden Grand Slam Cup and year end WTA Championships and 20 WTA Tier I and Tier II events. She also remains the only tennis player, both male and female, to hold all four Grand Slam singles titles at one time!

Williams is looking in great shape, she has dropped a couple of pounds and her speed around the court is quite astounding for a woman of her size. Her latest head liner was at the Tier I Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne where she equalled superstar Steffi Graf's record of five title wins.

Of her three outings in 2008 she has won two - only the Australian Open, where she was defending champion, has eluded her. Rumours abound that she suffered from mind crunching toothache during the Melbourne event and this could explain her generally lacklustre performances in the latter part of both the singles and doubles events.

She came back strongly and beat sister Venus, ranked 6^th, Patty Schynder, ranked 12^th, Justine Henin, ranked 1^st and Svetlana Kuznetsova, currently ranked 4^th, in Bangalore and Key Biscayne!

Breaking and setting records are par for the course for the younger Williams sister and her grand slam record says it all:

• She has won the Australian Open three times in 2003, 2005 and 2007
• She claimed the French Open Women's singles title in 2002
• She has triumphed at the All England Club on two occasions in 2002 and 2003 and was runner-up in 2004
• At home, at the US Open, she has clinched victory twice in 1999 and 2002 and in 2001 she reached the finals only to be knocked out by her older sister Venus.

Williams does not seem to have an Achilles heel - she is equally comfortable on all court surfaces and her win/loss record on clay is 63/20. She has downed some formidable rivals in her time including the celebrated Steffi Graf, girl wonder, Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport, Jennifer Capriati and Jelena Jankovic the current world number three!

Williams must be smarting having lost the first grand slam of the year to arch rival, Maria Sharapova, and she is the kind of player who exhibits immense resolve, so don't be surprised if the fabulous Serena waltzes off the centre court at Roland Garros with her second French Open title in the bag!