Can French Open give Serena Williams 20 grand slams? ‘That would be great’

'You know, I never thought I would be at 19' says Serena Williams ahead of the 2015 French Open, 'if I get to 20, that would be great, every day I feel like I'm living a dream'.

Serena Williams serves during a training session ahead of the French Open on Saturday. Miguel Medina / AFP / May 23, 2015

Serena Williams says that at 33 she believes that time is still on her side for her to set a new all-time record of grand slam singles title wins.

The American bagged her 19th title at the Australian Open in January.

That left her just three shy of the Open-era record of 22 set by Germany’s Steffi Graf and five short of the all-time record of Australian Margaret Court.

With Wimbledon and the US Open to follow it could be that the French Open, played on clay, her least favourite surface, could be the main obstacle in the way of her becoming just the fourth woman to complete the calendar grand slam.

But Williams said she had no intention of getting too far ahead of herself.

“That’s what’s so good about tennis,” she said. “Unlike basketball and the football, you have four times a year to get to the grand slams to try and win one. You have four chances,” she said.

“That gives us a little bit more opportunity to try to get there, even though the competition every year is harder and harder and harder.

“But, yeah, with that, I feel like there is still plenty of time. Honestly, if I get to 20, that would be great. If I get past that, that would be great. I think 19 is pretty awesome, too.

“You know, I never thought I would be at 19. I never thought I would make it this far. Every day I feel like I’m living a dream. I don’t want to wake up from it because it’s been really good.”

Apart from the likes of Maria Sharapova, Simona Halep and Petra Kvitova, Williams also has in Paris to deal with an elbow injury that caused her to pull out of the Rome tournament earlier this month.

That followed a busier than usual start to the year that saw her go on a 27-match undeaten run before losing to Kvitova in the Madrid semi-finals.

The injury was still causing her some pain, she said.

“Yeah, elbow it’s the same. 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,” she said.

“So I feel a lot better going forward in the tournament and just getting through it.”

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