French Open 2012: Good Draw Gives Venus Williams a Chance to Make a Run

Venus Williams beat Paula Ormaechea in the first round of the French Open and will be looking to capitalize on her good draw to advance deep into the tournament at Roland Garros this week.

After dropping the opening set 4-6 to the 120th-ranked player in the world, Williams bounced back to win the final two sets in impressive fashion, 6-1 and 6-3.

This was Williams' first match since revealing that she suffers from the autoimmune disease, Sjogren's Syndrome, and she will use this momentum to triumph over her opponents in the next few rounds.

In the second round, she'll face the winner of the match between Bojana Jovanovski and Agnieszka Radwanska. Radwanska is the No. 3-ranked player in the world, but if Williams can get past her, she's in pretty good shape to advance to the later rounds. The 23-year-old Polish native has never won a Grand Slam championship, despite her high ranking, and has never advanced past the fourth round in Paris.

Radwanska won the Brussels Open a few days ago, and that is precisely why Williams has a great chance to score an upset victory.

In her final-round victory over Simona Halep, Radwanska didn't serve all that well. If she isn't on her game when serving against Williams, she can expect plenty of return winners from the former No. 1 player in the world. It would be easy to see Radwanska faltering in the later stages of a prospective matchup between the two, as she will probably be feeling some fatigue, with the Brussels Open having just ended yesterday.

If she can get past Radwanska, Williams will face the winner of the match between Svetlana Kuznetsova and either Kateryna Bondarenko or Yung-Jan Chan. The last time Williams and Kuznetsova met was back in 2009 at the Sony Ericsson Open, with Williams winning.

After the possible match against Kuznetsova, Williams won't face any top-tier talent until at least the quarterfinals, where she might be pitted against Serbia's Ana Ivanovic. That could be the hardest match of the tournament.

If she is able to pull that one out, she'll have all the confidence in the world heading into the semifinals.

Just because Williams is ranked just No. 53 in the world doesn't mean that she no longer possesses the talent to beat the best players at Roland Garros. She's taken some time off and should look much better throughout the rest of the tournament than she looked before taking a leave of absence. She has the heart, the experience and the skills necessary to pull off a string of upset victories.

It shouldn't come as a surprise if she is able to do so.