Saturday 23 May 2015 13:08, UK
Serena Williams has revealed she is still troubled by the elbow injury that forced her to withdraw from the Italian Open last week.
The American played only one match in Rome before announcing her decision to pull out, with a view to regaining peak fitness for her bid to land a third French Open title.
However, the injury has not completely healed as she looks to regain the title she surrendered to Maria Sharapova at Roland Garros last year, after winning in 2013.
"Do I feel pain when I'm hitting? For sure a little bit," Williams said.
"The good thing is every day it's getting better. I've had a tougher time to get ready than I thought, but I have been doing a lot of cardio and getting myself ready in that aspect.
"Then I was able to play a little better today in practice so I felt like, 'Oh, it's better finally'.
"I was worried about it, but lately I have been really getting some really good treatment that has been able to alleviate it and make the symptoms go down substantially.
"So I feel a lot better going forward in the tournament and just getting through it."
Williams will play the Czech Republic's Andrea Hlavackova in the first round and she could also face sister Venus in the last 16, before a potential semi-final match-up with Canada's Eugenie Bouchard.
The 19-time grand slam champion has struggled in recent years to find her best form in Paris.
She has only reached the semi-final once since 2003, and last year she crashed out to Spain's Garbine Muguruza in the second round.
"When I've had dips in form, it definitely is an opportunity to prove everyone wrong," said Williams, whose first win at Roland Garros came back in 2002.
"For every reason I like to do that. And also, at the same time, it takes a ton of pressure off you because it's like, 'Oh, we might think this person will win and you are kind of in the background more than you would normally be'.
"So it's often a good place to be at. You don't have the pressure on you.
"The media isn't putting pressure on you and you're not really putting too much pressure on yourself - it's a good position to be in."
