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Women's singles - preview
by Paul Myers
Article published on the 2008-05-22 Latest update 2008-05-22 14:25 TU
Justine Henin will dominate this year's French Open even though she's not competing. The Belgian retired from the sport eleven days before the start of an event that she'd effectively annexed.
Winner for the past three years, and victorious in 2003, she would have been the favourite for a fifth crown at a tournament she first visited as a ten-year-old with her mother.
That trip with a parent who was to fall victim to cancer two years later has been one of the most heart-rending backdrops to a career. Its poignancy has been as compelling as the competitiveness that at times breached the boundaries of fair play.
Nevertheless, those left behind have been expansive with their eulogies. They'll also be energised, as for the first time in a few years they'll be heading to Roland Garros with a chance.
Being World Number One is not unfamiliar territory for Maria Sharapova. It's the fourth time, since turning professional in 2003, that the 21-year-old has been queen bee.
The Russian was there for a week in August 2005 and a further six weeks between September and October of the same year. Her last sojourn came during the first three months of 2007.
Even if 25-year-old Henin hadn't retired, Sharapova would have been pushing her close. She has enjoyed a blistering year.
She pulverised Henin 6-4 6-0 in the quarter-finals at the Australian Open before claiming her third grand slam title. Sharapova then won in Doha in February. And she collected her third title of the year at Amelia Island in Florida. It was her first on clay. But she still looks ill at ease on the surface.
At the Italian Open in Rome, her match in the last 16 against the Danish teenager Caroline Wozniacki was a catalogue of mistimed shots and poor footwork.
She advanced because her 17-year-old opponent, lacking self-belief, was a mirror image of the grunting incompetence on the other side of the net.
Sharapova failed to play the semi-final against the Serb Jelena Jankovic, citing a strained calf muscle and the desire to be fully fit for Paris.
For Sharapova the Roland Garros title would allow her to complete a career grand slam following wins at Wimbledon in 2004, at the US Open in 2006 and at the Australian Open.
Second seed Ana Ivanovic will be looking to go one better than last year in Paris.
She admits an attack of nerves in the 2007 final against Henin hampered her chances. After breaking the defending champion in the opening game and leading 40-0 on her own service she simply unravelled.
Her preparations for this year's tilt were upset with a loss in the second round in Rome to the Bulgarian qualifier Tsvetana Pironkova. If the 20-year-old Serb had progressed a further two rounds, she would have been sitting on top of the perch rather than Sharapova.
If they do meet in the final on 7 June, there'll be revenge in the air. Sharapova won the duel at the Australian Open final, which in part compensated for the beating Ivanovic handed out to her in the semi-finals at last year's Roland Garros where she matched Sharapova's bludgeons with her own bombardments.
Both of the leading ladies will be wary of occupying the same half of the draw as the third seed Jelena Jankovic.
The 23-year-old Serb ended her eleven-month drought without a title by retaining the Italian Open - the last significant event before Roland Garros.
Jankovic has been a steady performer so far during the clay court season. She reached the quarter-finals in Charleston in April, got to the last eight in Berlin earlier in May before glory in Rome.
This will be her fifth attempt to take the ultimate clay court crown. The woman who stopped her reaching last year's final? Justine Henin.
World number four Svetlana Kuznetsova was dispatched in the 2006 final by Henin. She's had a consistent season reaching the finals of Sydney, Dubai and Indian Wells but in the run-up to this year's tournament lost in Berlin in the last 16 to the Ukrainian 15th seed Alona Bondarenko and - more surprisingly - in Rome at the same stage to the 17-year-old French qualifier Alizé Cornet.
Kuznetsova, who won the US Open in 2004, needs another major to reestablish herself as a contender rather than a latter stages makeweight.
No observer of the modern game would brand Serena Williams thus. Venus Williams's younger sibling has scaled the heights since turning professional in 1995.
She's only the fifth woman since tennis went professional in 1968 to complete a career Grand Slam - wins at the Australian, the French and US Opens as well as Wimbledon. With that achievement she ascends to the pantheon with Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Martina Navrátilová and Steffi Graf.
And Williams is a sister doing it for herself. She has flouted the tenets of tennis openly stating that there's more to life than bashing a ball.
She has tried her hand at fashion, film and has appeared in the occasional music video. She went to the 2007 Australian Open unseeded and there were whispers about her bulbous physical condition.
She trounced all comers including the top seed Maria Sharapova in a brutally one-sided final. It was her third Australian Open singles title and her eighth grand slam. The 26-year-old will be seeking number nine and the absence of Henin will place her firmly among the favourites.
