Newly reinstated world number one Maria Sharapova finally completed a Career Grand Slam on Saturday after winning the 2012 Roland Garros title. The Russian beat Italy’s Sara Errani 6-3, 6-2 thus denying the latter of the feat made by Mary Pierce in 2000, which is to win both the women’s singles and doubles title in a single year at Roland Garros.
Sharapova, who won the Wimbledon title in 2004, the US Open title in 2006 and Australian Open in 2008, became the first woman to achieve this feat for almost a decade. The last female player to have achieved this feat was Serena Williams in 2003.
The Russian 26-year old had an almost career-ending shoulder injury in 2008 that required her to have a shoulder injury. Missing nearly a year of tennis action, she came back struggling to find form but saw her ranking slowly rise until she became a permanent fixture in the world’s top ten, but never quite reclaiming the top spot for the next four years.
However, her form has noticeably improved in 2011, which saw her performing well in all surfaces, including clay – which is regarded as her weakest surface. When she won the Italian Open in 2011, she became one of the favorites to win the French Open, but fell short – reaching the semifinals for the second time in her career. However, this did not diminish her game since less than a month later, she made it to the final of the Wimbledon tournament – eventually falling to Petra Kvitova.
Last January, Sharapova solidified her hold on the world number two ranking by reaching the Australian Open 2012 final where she lost to eventual world number one Victoria Azarenka of Belarus. She has had a magnificent record during the first part of the season – reaching the Indian Wells and Sony Ericsson final, losing to Azarenka and current number three Agnieszka Radwanska respectively. Durign the claycourt season, Sharapova showed that she’s a serious contender for the Roland Garros tournament, posting title wins at Stuttgart and Rome. However, a shadow of doubt looms in her quest due to the re-emergence of old rival Serena Williams in the claycourt scene. Williams compiled a 17-0 claycourt record entering the Roland Garros tournament and had been an overwhelming favorite to win her 14th Grand Slam title. With their scheduled quarterfinal meeting set based on their draw, pundits chose Williams to emerge as the victor in the match but this did not happen.
Williams created headlines in the first week of Roland Garros 2012 tournament after losing in the first round to Virginie Razzano of France. With the stunning early exit of the 13-time Grand Slam champion, this was certainly a tournament for Sharapova to lose and it did add extra pressure on her.
In the women’s singles final on Saturday, all the jampacked crowd at the stadium and amongst viewers worldwide is a very determined Sharapova who easily routed surprise finalist Sara Errani of Italy in straight sets and now marked a career achievement for her – to be the 10th woman in the Open Era to have won a career Grand Slam.
“It’s surreal, the most unique moment of my career,” Sharapova said.
“I never would have thought that. I thought winning Wimbledon at 17 would be the most treasured moment of my career. But when I fell on my knees today, I realised that this was even more special. It’s not over yet. I’m not sitting here and saying I’m done because I’m far from it. I have a lot more in me to achieve. I always strive to be better. No matter how many people told me I couldn’t get to this point, I always listened to my own voice telling me I’m meant to succeed again. And I did,” she concluded.
