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Venus Williams is adamant that she and injury-plagued sister Serena are not a spent force and will be back striking fear into opponents.
While Venus has overcome an elbow injury to be able to play at the French Open, the prognosis for Serena is nowhere near as good with the younger sister sidelined with a knee injury since the Australian Open in January.
Such is the seriousness of the problem that the seven-time Grand Slam winner has already pulled out of Wimbledon.
"What I will say is that never count a Williams sister out. I think everyone knows that at this point," said Venus who successfully negotiated the first round here against Sybille Bammer of Austria on Monday.
Venus is 13 in the world now while Serena, also a former world number one, has plunged to 180.
But Venus, who picked up a surprise third Wimbledon title in 2005, insists she can claw her way back to the top 10.
"I don't like to see myself like floating randomly outside the top 10. It's not where I belong. So I'm extremely motivated to always get my ranking back up.
"In a perfect world, I'd love to not be injured ever. For sure, it's hard coming back. It's a lot of work."
dj/ak06
Tennis-FRA-Open-Williams
AFP 301041 GMT 05 06
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