French Open 2012: Maria Sharapova Poised for Success at Roland Garros Again

Perhaps one of the more unexpected stories to have emerged has been the relative dominance of Maria Sharapova over this year's clay court season.

One says "relative" only because Sharapova's main rival and tormentor in the months before—World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka—has only played a secondary role in events on clay. The Belarusian, who won the Australian Open in January and Indian Wells in March, dominated Sharapova in both finals.

It seemed like more of the same would carry over onto the clay.

But a slightly incapacitated Azarenka and a change of surface facilitated a Sharapova victory in the Stuttgart final at a point when many had come to think of their three matches in 2012 as the beginnings of a new rivalry in women's tennis.

Since her win in Germany, Sharapova has emerged as something of a front-runner on clay heading into the French Open—a status most recently confirmed by her victory in Rome. Most significantly, it was a win over the defending French Open champion, Li Na—the woman who last year had thwarted her ambitions of winning a maiden title at Paris in the semifinals.

Admittedly she had some supernatural assistance, with the rain holding off play and delaying Li's almost irresistible march to victory, as she led by a set and 4-0. With customary grit, Sharapova fought back and successfully defended her championship of 2011, 7-6 in the third.

However, one ought not forget Serena Williams amidst such a tale of heroism. The 13-time grand slam champion stands with just as good, if not an even better claim, to French Open favoritism. Were it not for her withdrawal at Rome, she could well have faced Sharapova in the final and inflicted on her another humiliating thrashing in a replay of her wins at Charleston and Madrid (where she did outclass fairly convincingly both Azarenka and Sharapova).

Williams is coming back like clockwork, just when the biggest prize is up for grabs; returning from a hiatus during which she, in all likelihood, went on a holiday out of this galaxy.

Williams happens to share Sharapova's lust for battle, although something about clay in 2012 has lit up the latter in a way we have never expected.

Williams is the consummate tennis player, who almost as a player on the ATP can triumph on all surfaces. Sharapova, however, has typically been a fast-court player, one who thrives on pace and aggressive tennis.

Such aggression and power tennis has become more relevant on clay in the last few years, both in the men's and now women's games.

It used to be a surface for the grinder and nimble soccer-conditioned lightweight, content to rally from the baseline until the opponent inevitably yielded an opening for a heavily spun off-forehand winner.

The onset of players such as Del Potro and Soderling posed a new form of winning clay court formula—that of flat hard hitting, where the slowness of clay (blamed for deadening the pace of ground-strokes) became an aid, providing time to set-up for the killer strike.

Maria Sharapova, arguably, possesses a game not too dissimilar to that of such men, at least from a stylistic stand point. Movement has never been her greatest asset, but her hard, flat ground-strokes do benefit from the preparation time on clay.

Clearly it has benefited her on clay so far, and one hopes that in her quest for her first title at the French Open, which would complete for her the Career Grand Slam, the even slower clay of Roland Garros comes to her as a welcome boon for a game shaped more by relentless power than agility.