PARIS, May 21 (AFP) - She is the talk of tennis. Martina Hingis is living on borrowed time, the experts say. Venus Williams is coming to claim the women's number one ranking and could dominate the sport for years to come with her power and agility. The strapping Williams sisters - 18-year-old Venus and her younger sibling Serena - have captured the imagination of the public with their athletic play and outspoken views. Their high profile conveniently ignores the fact that neither sister has yet won a Grand Slam title, something Venus is anxious to put right when the French Open starts at Roland Garros on Monday. Williams, who is the fifth seed, confirmed her current form with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Mary Pierce in the final of the Italian Open in Rome earlier this month. She will be one of the favourites to win in Paris, where the courts are similar to those of the Foro Italico, and her baseline power game can be used to good effect. Since losing her quarter-final match to fellow American Lindsay Davenport at the Australian Open in January, Venus has been on a roll - including a victory over Serena in the final of the rich Lipton tournament in Florida. She has now won four tournaments this year and beat top-ranked Hingis in the semi-finals in Rome to give herself a timely confidence-boost. Her win in Rome came just a week after Williams won the first clay court title of her career in Hamburg. She goes into Roland Garros having won 19 of her last 20 matches and is learning to love the clay surface. "I think I understand it a little bit more now," she said after her win in Rome. "I think I've learned how to attack when I need to; to step up sometimes and to keep the ball in play sometimes. In the past, I didn't always know how to find the balance." Balance is the key to success for Williams. She has always been a tall, strong player and a prodigious striker of the ball. Now she has learned the need for patience on clay, she looms as a major threat to a field which contains a five-time champion Steffi Graf and two three-time French champions in Monica Seles and defending champion Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario as well as world number one Hingis. While the established names remain, women's tennis is nowadays buzzing with the potential of the new breed - the Williams sisters, Australian Open finalist Amelie Mauresmo and Russian glamour girl Anna Kournikova. While Venus returned home to Florida to complete her preparations for Roland Garros, her sister is struggling to overcome an injury in the lead-up to the event. Serena, who is seeded 10th, is struggling to overcome an elbow injury she suffered in Berlin. She has one advantage over her sister, though, having already won a tournament in Paris. Serena, who is often left in her sister's shadow, won the Paris Indoor title in February for the first WTA title of her career. Both players had impressive Grand Slam records last year without making the breakthough. Venus made the quarters at Melbourne, Paris and Wimbledon and the semis at the US Open, while Serena made the fourth round at Roland Garros - losing to eventual champion Sanchez-Vicario - and the third round at both Wimbledon and the US Open.  