It was with much admiration that tennis fans cheered Venus Williams return to grand slam victory as she overcame a first round scare to secure her place in the second round of the French Open. The eight time grand slam winner and twenty one grand slams in all types of tennis, has been out of the game since being diagnosed with a fatigue inducing chronic illness called Sjorgrens disease. After returning to the game around six months ago, Venus has taken some courageous steps in her attempts to return to the number one spot in women’s tennis.

After her absence she has fallen to number 52 in the world rankings, however her victory over Argentinean Paula Ormaecha over three sets (4-6 6-1 6-3). Williams had a shaky start to the game and was unable to recreate her powerful serving game until the second set where she was able to find some rhythm and began to dominate the game in typical William sister fashion, before finishing her opponent in the third set with a convincing 6-3 victory.

The thirty one year old American who is sister to world number five Serena Williams, is hoping to put in a strong performance at the French Open before returning to her most prolific tournament at Wimbledon which she has won five times, with the last victory coming in 2008. If Venus can re capture her performance level before the lengthy hiatus from the game, she will certainly be a big contender going into the Wimbledon championship. In term of success at the French open this may come in the form of making it into the later rounds and testing her fitness levels ahead of a summer of tennis.