Paris ? Success comes with perils for Justine Henin. Her strategy is to simply ignore all her achievements.

The top-ranked Belgian player heads into today’s French Open final against seventh-seeded Ana Ivanovic with more landmarks within her reach.

“I forget about this because it’s not going to help me win,” Henin said. “I just have to stay concentrated on me.”

She could become the first woman to win three consecutive titles at Roland Garros since Monica Seles in 1990-92, and only the fifth to win the title at least four times overall since 1925.

“You have to forget about expectations, because it’s an added source of pressure,” Henin said Friday. “You don’t need it. Everyone is waiting for you. And you also have to play well, if that’s possible. It’s not easy. It’s not the kind of situation that gives me pleasure on a tennis court.”

Henin leads Ivanovic, 32-3, in singles titles, 5-0 in Grand Slam trophies, and 10-1 in Grand Slam finals.

But the tag of favorite rests uneasily with Henin, whose character was forged in adversity.

“Life has been hard with me in the past,” Henin said. “I would love to have my mom with me; that’s the only thing I would love to change. But in another way that gave me a lot of personality, a lot of character.”

Henin was 12 when her mother died of cancer. She recently separated from husband Pierre-Yves Hardenne and reconciled with her father after a falling out. With her personal life weighing on her, Henin skipped the Australian Open in January.

“When you have something else going on in your private life, you just need the time to fix that,” Henin said.

The 19-year-old Ivanovic had troubles of her own when growing up in war-ravaged Serbia.

Tennis facilities were so threadbare she trained in an emptied swimming pool doubling up as tennis court, and traveled six hours by bus to neighboring Hungary because it was impossible to get a visa out of Serbia for tournaments abroad.

Like Henin, Ivanovic is playing in her first Grand Slam final at the age of 19. Henin lost the Wimbledon final to Venus Williams in 2001.