Williams sisters back as top two seeds in Paris

PARIS - Serena and Venus Williams are the French Open's two top-seeded women, and if it seems as though it's been awhile since that was the case at a Grand Slam tournament, that's because it has.

This is the first time the American sisters are seeded 1-2 at a major championship since the Australian Open in January 2003.

Plenty has transpired in their lives during the intervening years. Each sister has dealt with injuries, absences from the tour and drops in the rankings, as well as the far-more-serious matter of the shooting death of half-sister Yetunde Price in September 2003.

Yet Venus and Serena keep returning to the heights of their sport.

"You know," Serena noted, "people have said we would never be No. 1 and No. 2 in the world again. You look, I don't know, 10 years later and ... we're still doing the best."

When the French Open begins today, second-ranked Venus will play former top-10 player Patty Schnyder of Switzerland to start a bid for her eighth Grand Slam singles title.

Among active women, only top-ranked Serena, with 12, owns more major trophies than her older sister.

"We feel like we deserve to be here," Serena said. "We've worked so hard for so many years, and, you know, ups and downs, and, you know, all kinds of problems and everything. And to be back is cool."

Having won this season's Australian Open, Serena will be trying to become the first woman since Jennifer Capriati in 2001 to get halfway to a calendar-year Grand Slam. She also aims to win the French Open for the second time; Serena beat Venus in the 2002 final at Roland Garros.

Still, this season has hardly been perfect for the 28-year-old Serena, who is 15 months younger than Venus.

After Australia, Serena was off the tour for all of February, March and April because of a bothersome left knee. Since returning, she is only 4-2 on clay, losing two of her past three matches.

Venus, meanwhile, is 26-4 in 2010, a tour-leading .867 winning percentage, and is coming off a run to the final on clay at Madrid, where she lost to Aravane Rezai of France. Only one woman could overtake Serena at No. 1 in the rankings by the end of the French Open: Venus.

"I mean, in essence, I'm still the same player, but I just think that I understand the game more ... and how to play th

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