Paris: The two biggest names and highest earners in women’s sport will set off on another collision course when the French Open gets underway at Roland Garros on Sunday. Serena Williams is a 19-time Grand Slam winner, at 33 still the undisputed queen of tennis and the top seed. Maria Sharapova has won two out of the last three titles in Paris, including last year, and at 28 is in the prime of her glittering and lucrative career.
Should the seedings hold firm and the American will clash with Russian in the final on June 6. However, past experience points to there being only one winner. Serena has not lost to Sharapova since 2004 and leads their head-to-heads by an astounding 17-2, the last of these coming in the Australian Open final in Melbourne at the start of the year. The outcome no different in 2013 when the pair met for the first, and to date only time, in the French Open final.
As favoured as Serena and Sharapova are, there are players in the draw who could derail them. Romanian Simona Halep made the final last year and took Sharapova all the way, Petra Kvitova is the reigning Wimbledon champion who is returning to form after a bout of exhaustion and Caroline Wozniacki is enjoying a return to form that followed on from her run into the US Open final last September.
There is also much interest in the performances of two former golden girls — Victoria Azarenka and Eugenie Bouchard.
Djokovic looks to become toast of France
In the men’s section, Novak Djokovic can become just the eighth man to complete the career Grand Slam with a maiden French Open victory, but the world number one fears fate may conspire against him in Paris.Djokovic, who turned 28 on Friday, is the overwhelming favourite to lift the Coupe des Mousquetaires and claim his ninth career Grand Slam title.
Victory would take him alongside Fred Perry, Don Budge, Rod Laver, Roy Emerson, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal as a winner of all four majors. It would also take him halfway to a calendar Grand Slam, a challenge so daunting that only Budge (1938) and Laver (1962 and 1969) have managed to pull it off.
Djokovic comes into Paris riding a 22-match winning streak, a season which has already seem him capture a fifth Australian Open as well as Masters titles in Indian Wells, Miami and on clay at Monte Carlo and Rome.
