Williams sisters flying high on approach to Paris

Fewer than three weeks remain until the French Open, and the stars of the women's game are fine-tuning their clay-court game ahead of 2009's second Grand Slam.

Now that Justine Henin is out of the picture, there is no clear dominant dirt force, meaning that the action at Roland Garros could be wide open.

This week's power rankings reflect the excellent form of Svetlana Kuznetsova, who stormed to victory in Stuttgart last week. Kuznetsova, the 2004 U.S. Open champion, looked strong and imposing in racing to the title by beating world No.1 Dinara Safina in the final.

Vera Zvonareva has dropped from our list, only because of the doubts lingering over her ankle ligament injury. Unconfirmed reports suggest the Russian is finding the complaint hard to shake off, and that it could even jeopardize her involvement in Paris.

There were no changes at the top, however, with Serena and Venus Williams still the two most feared players in the game, whatever the official rankings say.

Serena came out and voiced what everyone else is thinking this week: She insisted she is the best player on the WTA Tour, even though Safina is ranked ahead of her.

Yahoo! Sports women's tennis power rankings

1. (1) Serena Williams: Says she's "the best" ... and it's hard to argue

2. (2) Venus Williams: Rome form will be a good clay-court indicator

3. (7) Dinara Safina: Entering her favorite part of the season

4. (-) Svetlana Kuznetsova: Sensational Stuttgart run shows she'll be a force on clay

5. (8) Elena Dementieva: Starting to return to early 2009 form

6. (4) Victoria Azarenka: Still struggling to regain full fitness

7. (5) Caroline Wozniacki: Admits she needs more consistency

8. (6) Jelena Jankovic: A long way removed from last year's efforts