Serena Williams ‘will play the French Open to win it’

Serena Williams will return to action at the French Open despite not having not played a match on clay in two years, according to her coach Patrick Mouratoglou.

The American last played competitively on hardcourts at the Miami Open in March, losing in straight sets to Naomi Osaka in an error-strewn performance.

Williams was expected to play at major clay-court tune-ups in Madrid and Rome, yet pulled out of both.

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However, Mouratoglou said the 23-time major champion had been diligently training, preparing and improving at his academy in the south of France.

Had a great opportunity to speak to @mouratoglou_tennis_academy about tennis, hard work, and dreaming big. Can you spot me and @patrickmouratoglou

A post shared by Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) on May 13, 2018 at 6:06am PDT

“I am very satisfied and confident that she will be ready for Roland Garros,” he said in an interview with wtatennis.com.

“After her pregnancy, Serena had to rebuild her body. The time she lost after the delivery with all the medical issues she had to go through, was missing.

“That is the reason why we decided to skip Madrid and Rome as she needed five weeks to be perfectly ready. So far, things are going very well. She is working extremely hard, she is improving in all the areas fast.

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“Serena will play the French Open to win it. Can she do it? Serena can achieve anything – after being her coach for six years, I’m even more sure of that statement.”

Williams last played at Roland Garros in 2016, when she reached the final before losing to Garbine Muguruza.

The 36-year-old is a three-time winner in Paris, most recently in 2015, but has played just four singles matches in the last 16 months having given birth to her first child in September.

Besides Miami, her only other official competitive outing this season came at Indian Wells, where she won two matches before going down to sister Venus in the third round.

Mouratoglou acknowledged that Williams would experience strong emotions returning to Roland Garros, having not played a major tournament since winning the Australian Open in 2017.

“For Serena, playing at Roland Garros is something very special as she has not been able to participate in a Grand Slam for a year and a half,” he said.

“She obviously comes back to win and the wait has been long, so she will probably start Roland Garros with a mix of stress because she will want to do well and excitement because playing those events is the reason why she made such huge efforts to come back.”

Roland Garros begins on Sunday 27 May in Paris.