After finishing a busy exam period, Omair, Women's Tennis Blog's well-known contributor specialized in stats, jotted down a statistical preview of the women's singles final at the 2012 French Open – Maria Sharapova vs. Sara Errani. Can the numbers reveal the Saturday's winner? Let's see!

If you asked a pick for Roland Garros finalist from the bottom half of the draw this year, everyone would have answered Serena Williams, given her record on clay this year – she had not lost a match coming into Roland Garros and in doing so she defeated Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka, the world No.2 and world No.1 respectively, in straight sets. Very few people believed in Sharapova's chances as Williams was in her quarter of the draw and Sharapova has always struggled against Williams. But, Williams lost in the first round to Virginie Razzano! Sharapova let her racquet do the talking, and here she is in her first ever Roland Garros final. She had been to the semifinals of Roland Garros twice before this year, falling to Ana Ivanovic in 2007 and Li Na in 2011. The Russian made it third time lucky and now she is having the chance to become only the sixth player in the Open Era to have won all Grand Slams at least once.

No one, not even a single person talked about Sara Errani, who when entering this year's Roland Garros was the claycourt wins leader this year, and her only losses on clay (other than her Fed Cup match where she retired against Lesia Tsurenko) came at the hands of world No.3 Agnieszka Radwanska in Madrid and world No.5 Samantha Stosur in Rome. She was in Radwanska's quarter of the draw, the toughest draw any player could have (with two former Roland Garros champions and three Top 10 players). The toughest draw, her dismal record against Top 10 players (0-28, before her Roland Garros quarterfinal victory) and the fact that she had never even made it to the third round at Roland Garros in her past four appearances all spoke in her disadvantage, but here she is, in the final of her first Grand Slam.

Entering the final, Errani's 2012 win-loss record is 35-10, while Sharapova is 35-5 this year. Surprisingly, the two have never faced each other before!

Sharapova's losses this year have come at the hands of Victoria Azarenka, Agnieszka Radwanska, Angelique Kerber and Serena Williams, but Sharapova has not been the sharpest in the finals of Grand Slams lately. She was heavy favorite in the final against Petra Kvitova at Wimbledon last year, and then against Azarenka at Australian Open this year, but she lost both times, in straight sets. So what is the similarity here? Both Kvitova and Azarenka were first-time Grand Slam finalists, so is Errani, however, there is one difference, both Kvitova and Azarenka had made the semis of Grand Slams before that, while Errani has not (her best previous Grand Slam result was a quarterfinal showing at this year's Australian Open).

Errani's road to the final has been full of milestones she has been setting, entering into the third round and fourth round clashes and then her quarterfinal and semifinal matches, Errani was 0-2 against Ana Ivanovic, 0-5 against Svetlana Kuznetsova, 0-1 against Angelique Kerber (and more importantly 0-28 against Top 10 players), and 0-5 against Stosur respectively. She overcome all of these odds and obstacles in making her fairy tale continue.

Sharapova also set some milestones of her own, she made it to her first Roland Garros final and in doing so she regained the top spot for the first time in four years, since she last held it before her shoulder injury.

Will Sharapova crumble again letting Errani complete her Cinderella story, or will Sharapova crush the Italian to complete her Grand Slam collection? Let the numbers do the talking:

* An average of more than four per match, which means that she loses her serve at least once due to her double faults.

Errani only leads Sharapova in the double faults department, the rest of the stats go in Maria's favor. Good first serve percentage of Errani is neutralised by the percentage of points won on the first serve. Errani's second serve is a liability which shows in her stats as well, she has merely won 39% of the points played on her second serve, and given that Sharapova is a great returner, Errani will be in trouble. Read more »

Maria Sharapova beat world No.4 Petra Kvitova 6-3 6-3 in the French Open semifinals to reach her first final at the tournament in three tries and reclaim the No.1 ranking, dethroning Victoria Azarenka who's occupied the position for 19 weeks. Sharapova first became No.1 on August 22, 2005 and the last time she was No.1 was in 2008. In total, she spent 17 weeks on top of the rankings and from June 11, 2012 she will enter her 18th week.

There's another milestone Sharapova can reach in the French Open final: she will have a chance to complete a career slam (own a title from each major) and become the tenth woman in history to do so.

Sara Errani overcame a second-set slump to upset Samantha Stosur 7-5 1-6 6-3, winning 12 of the last 15 points of the encounter to reach the championship match of Roland Garros. As seed No.21 and a player that exited a Grand Slam during the first three rounds on 17 out of 18 occasions (she played the quarterfinals of the 2012 Australian Open), Errani is a surprise finalist, but when you realize that she's won the biggest number of titles on clay this season, with trophies in Acapulco, Barcelona and Budapest (16 straight claycourt matches!), it all makes sense. Read more »

Sixth seed Samantha Stosur stormed into her third semifinal at Roland Garros and her opponent will be Sara Errani, a first-time Grand Slam semifinalist, against whom she has a 5-0 head-to-head record, including this year's defeat of the Italian in the second round on the clay of Rome.

In the quarterfinals, the 2010 runner-up Stosur took out Dominika Cibulkova, world No.1 Victoria Azarenka's conqueror, 6-4 6-1. The 15th-seeded Cibulkova converted only one of ten break point opportunities, and that one helped her approach Stosur, from being 5-2 down in the first set, Cibulkova moved to 5-4, but she didn't converted her break chances to level to 5-5. Stosur then won the first set and 31 minutes later the whole match. The Australian is yet to lose a set this year at the French Open. Read more »

Just before world No.1 Victoria Azarenka could find no answer to Dominika Cibulkova’s pressure and left the Roland Garros tournament, the 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova was also outplayed and said goodbye on the Court Philippe Chatrier after falling to Sara Errani 6-0 7-5.

As you know, Errani is no stranger to clay. This season she’s won three successive titles on the red surface (Acapulco, Barcelona and Budapest) and is now in the best form ever. After suffering a ruthless bagel in the first set, seed No.26 Kuznetsova raised hopes of a battle when she broke Errani’s serve and held her own to lead 5-3 in the second set, but then simply lost her way and the steady Errani won all the remaining games.

Seed No.21 Errani has now recorded back-to-back victories over two former Roland Garros champions, as in the third round she ousted the 2008 champion Ana Ivanovic. Li Na is now the only former champion left in the draw.

In her first French Open quarterfinal, Errani will face tenth seed Angelique Kerber, who beat Petra Martic 6-3 7-5. Errani is 0-28 lifetime against Top 10 players and Kerber won their last and only meeting easily, this year at Hobart 6-1 6-2. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

By virtue of her excellent form, Dubai, Miami and Brussels titles in 2012 and the fact that in the entire year so far she’s lost only to Victoria Azarenka (six times, though) and Petra Cetkovska, world No.3 Agnieszka Radwanska was tipped off as one of the favorites for the Roland Garros title and by displaying the craftiness of her game in the defeat of Venus Williams in the second round, the Pole only reaffirmed the tennis world’s predictions. However, in the third round against two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, Radwanska won only three games, looked nervous and passive and left Roland Garros without proving herself on big stage. Kuznetsova may currently be 25 spots lower in the rankings than Radwanska, but the experienced Russian had no trouble demolishing the third seed 6-1 6-2.

In the fourth round, the 2009 French Open champion Kuznetsova, seeded No.26 this year, will play Sara Errani, seed No.21. Errani advanced with a 1-6 7-5 6-3 victory over former titlist on the grand stage of Paris Ana Ivanovic, who was so optimistic about the current state of her tennis, especially after winning her first round against Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino 6-1 6-1 and her second round against Shahar Peer 6-2 6-2. Ivanovic blames her bad serve for the defeat. However, even though Ivanovic is a much more famous WTA name, the meeting with Errani was expected to be tricky, especially because the Italian won three straight claycourt titles this season: Acapulco, Barcelona and Budapest. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)