Clijsters, Henin confident about French Open

Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin have put paid to the long-standing brain-teaser: "Name two famous Belgians".

Returning from the Italian Open, the pair, who are eagerly looking forward to next week's French Open, are fast becoming two of the biggest world names in women's tennis.

Henin was edged out in the Rome final by Serena Williams, a reverse of the result of the German Open in Berlin, and the Belgian's recent strong form has pushed her world ranking up from eight to five.

"We are both feeling confident," Henin said with typical understatement this week.

"We have played a lot of matches on clay and that's a good thing before going to a grand slam.

"I like the French Open, it's maybe my favourite tournament of the year. I am confident I will play well but you never know what's going to happen."

Henin was beaten by Clijsters in the French semifinals last year before Clijsters herself was beaten in three mammoth sets in the final by American Jennifer Capriati.

Both women have birthdays during the French Open. Henin turns 20 on the first Saturday and Clijsters will be 19 a week later.

But there is little time to think of birthday celebrations with the pressure building up for Roland Garros.

"For sure people expect a lot from us because we played very well recently and because last year we had good results," Henin said.

MENTALLY TOUGHER

But she said the pressure would not affect her performance as she was mentally tougher than she used to be.

The turning point came for her during the third round of the German Open two weeks ago.

"I realised I wasn't playing at 100 percent and I was preventing myself from doing so because of my attitude," she said.

"From that moment I decided to play more for myself and for my pleasure and it worked."

She went on to win the tournament.

"Of course I gained a lot of confidence after Berlin. To have such results you have to be strong mentally," she said.

Asked if she felt she had a lot to lose in Paris, Henin replied: "No, why not a lot to win?"

Clijsters, who has slipped to the number four slot, is hoping to get back to winning ways at Roland Garros this year.

"I'm really looking forward to going out there and to be able to be on centre court again because last year was a great experience for me," she said.

"It'll be great to get back into the atmosphere of a grand slam.

"It's not that I'm nervous or anything like that."

NOT WORRIED

The two Belgians are level in their head-to-head meetings with four wins apiece.

Clijsters sympathised with former world number one Martina Hingis, who has withdrawn from the French Open due to injury and is recovering from surgery to repair her left ankle.

"She's been on the court for so long and she hasn't had that many injuries,"Clijsters said.

"Let's hope for Martina that she will recover after the surgery and that she will get back in form."

"What she has done for women's tennis has been unbelievable."

Clijsters said she was not worried that recent injuries of her own would hamper her performance in Paris.

"No, my arm has been okay," she said.

Clijsters also said she would be happy to be based in both Belgium and Australia, home of boyfriend and world number one Lleyton Hewitt.

"I love Australia and I always go in summer so it's really great," she said.

"I would never leave Belgium because this is my home and I have a big family. But, yes, I would love to live in Australia one day. It would be great to have two homes."