I feel good, I feel ready: Serena

PARIS:  Justine Henin will need all her clay court expertise in her French Open quarter-final against Serena Williams on Tuesday if she is to keep alive her hopes of a rare hat-trick of titles.   

The 25-year-old Belgian has not lost a match at Roland Garros since being upset by Italy's Tathiana Garbin in the second round in 2004 when she was the defending champion. She was later diagnosed as having a viral complaint that left her feeling exhausted and took several months to recover. Since then she has gone from strength to strength winning the last two years in Paris and recapturing the world No.1 spot from Maria Sharapova.   

Last year at this time, Williams was nowhere in sight, wracked by injuries and lack of motivation, her world ranking plummeted down to 95th place and there was even talk of her career coming to a premature end. But a stunning win in the Australian Open in January, her eighth in Grand Slam events, relaunched her and she has looked as fit and focussed in Paris as she was five years ago when she won her only French Open crown.   

Their centre court clash will also mark the first time they have played at Roland Garros since their superb, but controversial semi-final in 2003 when Henin defeated the defending champion in three sets. The American left the court in tears after being jeered by the partisan Paris public who had swung behind the underdog after a series of controversial incidents during the match.   

Both players insisted that what happened in 2003 had been consigned to the dustbin and would have no effect on Tuesday's clash which is being billed as a final before the final. Henin, who missed the Australian Open as she was dealing with the breakup of her marriage, says that though she has lost the two matches she has played against Williams since 2003, most recently at Miami in February, she was the better equipped to win on clay.   

"I feel more confident playing her on clay than on grass, but Miami is a match I should have won," she said.  "I won in 2003 so that gives me confidence. But that was a long time ago and things have changed in our lives and in our careers so I can't predict what's going to happen on Tuesday."   

Williams, seven months the older of the two, agreed that she preferred grass or hardcourts but insisted her game on clay was improving.   "I feel good, I feel ready," she said. "I'm sliding better, I'm running better and I'm just playing the clay court game better."   

The winner of that tie will go up against the winner of the match between fourth seed Jelena Jankovic and Czech teenager Nicole Vaidisova. Jankovic, the former junior world No.1, has made impressive progress over the last year since a losing slump in the first half of 2006 that left her pondering retirement. Her third round win over Venus Williams underlined her threat and she should have enough weapons to see off the 18-year-old Vaidisova, a semi-finalist here last year, who is short of matchplay after taking time out to heal tendonitis in her shoulder.   

The same problem goes for second seed Maria Sharapova in the bottom half of the draw. Despite two months on the sidelines, the Russian says she still feels pain and discomfort in her shoulder when she serves and it has shown in Paris where her usually powerful serves have been decidedly weaker.  But there is no doubting her grit and determination as shown in her battling performance to defeat Patty Schnyder in Sunday's fourth round saving match points along the way.