Maria Sharapova, who entered the 2013 French Open as the No. 2 seed in the women's singles field, will do battle with Canadian Eugenie Bouchard today at Roland Garros in a match that can be live streamed free by clicking this link.
Sharapova began her defense of the French Open title she won last year by crushing an overmatched Su-Wei Hsieh of Chinese Taipei. Hsieh was the 52nd ranked singles player in the women's field, but lost 2-6, 1-6 to Sharapova.
Sharapova is coming off the best year of her pro career, in which she finished second in the Australian Open, won the French Open, made the fourth round at Wimbledon before making the U.S. Open semifinals. Already in 2013, Sharapova has reached the semifinals of the Australian Open.
The six feet, two inch tall Russian dispatched Hsieh in just 54 minutes, hitting 25 winners to Hsieh's meager eight, before finishing her off with a brutal backhand. Sharapova wasn't always a dominant force on clay; in fact, she once described her movement on the surface like a "cow on ice." She went to work on her quickness and has become far more graceful.
"I started moving a lot better. I started believing that I could play longer rallies. I could recover better," Sharapova said. She also noted that the journey to becoming one of the best clay competitors in the field was far from easy. "It took a lot of time. It took a lot of bad losses," she said. "I was grumpy, and I had my tough days, and I would yell at people. ... I would certainly have my doubts, but I kept going, and I didn't let anybody tell me otherwise."
Now, all Sharapova's hard work has paid off with a 2012 French Open title. Now, she and tennis fans worldwide will hope for an eventual showdowns with the top-ranked player in women's tennis right now, Serena Williams.
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