Venus Williams, who reached the Roland Garros final in 2002, predicted a tough match against Bulgaria's young hopeful Sesil Karatantcheva, 15.
The two will meet Friday in the third-round of the big tournament. In an interview Williams pointed out the younger pretenders' mental superiority compared to her ages years ago. "I think they are on a higher level mentally than I was," she said.
The Bulgarian teenager, the second youngest player in the Roland Garros singles draw, beat the 19-seed Japanese to advance to the next round of the French Open tournament.
"I think there's a lot more younger players in comparison to at the time when I was playing, a lot more younger people breaking through the ranks, it seems", Williams also said.