Five potential French Open 2012 champions – Tennis Special (Part Three)
Maria Sharapova
Champion in Stuttgart and then in Rome, Maria Sharapova, is the hot favourite player to win the title at the French Open this year. You might think that some bias has crept in my choice but I will prove how Sharapova is greater
than the world number one, Victoria Azarenka, at the moment.
Russian tennis ace has been in search for the Grand Slam title ever since her comeback to the professional tennis circuit. She missed bulk of the last year due to niggling shoulder and knee injuries and returned in the Australian
Open where she almost grabbed her fourth Grand Slam title as well as the number one spot in the world rank but Azarenka stood in her way.
The rivalry started there and the Russian beauty queen had her chance to take her revenge in the final of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells but she couldn’t. However, her performance didn’t drop one bit and she continued to
work hard and reach the advanced stages of almost all the tournaments she played. Finally in Stuttgart, the 25-year-old Russian destroyed the Belarusian in straight sets and clinched her maiden title of the season.
The rivalry witnessed some shoulder bumps and strong indirect messages swapped between two players over the course of the season especially when the Belarusian tennis ace decided to withdraw from the tournament in Rome, last week.
Sharapova disliked it completely and stated that she would rather pay the fine and not participate in the tournament just to make sure that injury doesn’t grow into some big trouble. But what she sees is that Azarenka says she is injured and two days later
she is practicing perfectly.
This sort of incidents delights the crowd because they want an intense battle at the courts when the two players face each other and it can only happen when there is massive history between them. Sharapova and Azarenka have created
such a history and they will put their bodies on the line for the sake of victory especially the Russian beauty queen.
Coming back to the terrific season of world number two, one thing is clear that she is not going to bow down anytime soon in the French Open. It has to be something tremendous from someone to oust the in-form Russian because she
doesn’t look to forgive anyone at the moment. She is hungry to reclaim her throne, the number spot in the world and she will go to any extent for that.
Stakes are high for the Top-2 seeds in the French Open. One is fighting to claim her throne whilst the other is playing to create a stronghold on her number one spot. If these two players meet for the fourth time in the year, it
has to be Sharapova who wins the match because she needs to level the head-to-head scores and claim the spot from where she belongs to. She has already squandered one opportunity; she is not going to repeat it again. Moreover, Azarenka (apparently) is struggling
from a shoulder injury so that is also a major problem for her.
So, for me it will be the Russian slender-legged beauty queen, Maria Sharapova, lifting the French Open crown in Paris, France.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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