I can win it, says Amelie

It's a short hop on Eurostar train from Paris to London but for Amelie Mauresmo they are worlds apart.

It's a short hop on the Eurostar train from Paris to London but for French star Amelie Mauresmo they are worlds apart.

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The powerfully-built 24-year-old goes through a yearly torture chamber in the French Open where the burdens on her to win from a partisan home crowd are matched only by the expectations placed on Tim Henman at Wimbledon.

Mauresmo usually succumbs to the pressure and she did so again last month inexplicably being blown away in a quarter-final tie against Russia's Elena Dementieva, a player she had previously blanked 6-0, 6-0.

But now clay has given way to green grass and Mauresmo is lapping it up, coasting through her opening two matches and with the defeats of Anastasia Myskina and Venus Williams, the fourth seed is now the main threat to Serena Williams' reign.

None other than nine-times former champion Martina Navratilova and 1977 champion Virgina Wade have tipped Mauresmo to go all the way this time, her previous best being a semi-final capitulation to Serena in 2002.

"It's good for me to know that these kind of players who have won this tournament and know how to play on grass are saying that," she said after her second round win over American Jennifer Hopkins.

A win for Mauresmo on Centre Court next Saturday would end a drought even longer than that facing Tim Henman who is trying to become the first Briton to win since Fred Perry in 1936.

The last French woman to win was the legendary Suzanne Lenglen in 1925 with Henri Cochet the last Frenchman to win in 1929, rounding off a run of six straight titles for the great Musketeers.

The softly-spoken Mauresmo is never one to talk up her own chances, but she believes that the time could be right for her this year.

"I feel I can do it," she said.

"I felt I could do it two years ago when I was in the semis, but it did not happen. I just feel that I have some chances to go until the end. But so many things can happen."

Crunch-time for Mauresmo will likely come in the semi-finals where she will be up against her bete noire, Serena Williams, which should the seedings go according to plan.

The younger Williams defeated her here two years ago and blew her away in the French Open quarter-finals the same year.

But with 2000 and 2001 winner Venus Williams already out and with 2002 and 2003 champion Serena below her best, the Americans are no longer held in such awe by their opponents.

"It's true they don't win as much. Three years ago Serena was winning the lot, four Grand Slams in a row. And then Venus in the final each time," she said.

"So of course when you see players being beaten a little bit more often, it gives you a lot more confidence when you walk out on court against them."