Maria Sharapova Will Inevitably Face Serena Williams in French Open Final

Maria Sharapova barely broke a sweat in the first round of the 2013 French Open at Roland Garros, beating Su-Wei Hsieh 6-2, 6-1. The match took just 54 minutes from start to finish, and the No. 2 player in the world was utterly dominant throughout.

After the impressive opening match, Sharapova gave the crowd at Roland Garros a nice wave before heading back to the locker rooms.

It was the perfect beginning to Sharapova's French Open title defense, and at this point it seems inevitable she'll face Serena Williams in the women's final in less than two weeks' time. 

Next up for Sharapova is Eugenie Bouchard from Quebec, Canada. She's the No. 77-ranked player in the world, has compiled a 16-10 match record for the year and has never before won a title of any kind on the ATP Tour. 

In fact, it could be said Bouchard's greatest claim to fame right now is that she's featured, along with Sharapova, to represent Nike's line of women's tennis clothing as seen on Bouchard's official Twitter account:

Should Sharapova defeat Bouchard (she will) in the second round, she'll have an easy job ahead of her in Round 3, as No. 26-ranked Tamira Paszek was upset in the first round by Melanie Oudin. 

The biggest threat to Sharapova's advancement past the quarterfinals is Petra Kvitova, the No. 7-ranked player in the world.

She has faced Sharapova six times in her career, losing four of those matches. The last time these two top players faced one another was a year ago at Roland Garros, when Sharapova dispatched Kvitova in straight sets, winning 6-3, 6-3.

Her biggest threat in the semifinals, should she get there (she will), is No. 3-ranked Victoria Azarenka.

These two have battled one another 12 times, with Azarenka winning seven matches. That said, they've only played once on clay, and Sharapova won that match after Azarenka fell victim to an injury that forced her to retire.

Azarenka is much better on hard surfaces. She's never once gotten out of the quarterfinals at Roland Garros, and should she face Sharapova this year in the semifinals it's likely she'll fail to move on. 

Instead, it's far more likely that Sharapova will make it back to the finals to defend her crown. And inevitably, it's going to be Williams (who has been unstoppable since losing in the first round last year) who will challenge her for the right to be called the French Open champion for the upcoming year.

Should it come to this, Sharapova will need to be at her absolute best to defeat Williams, who has won 13 of the 15 matches between them—including the last 12.

Sharapova's excellent start shows she's in the right state of mind to defend her title. Unfortunately, Williams may just be too much of a force to be defeated right now in the finals. 

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