Roland Garros WTA awards: Clay Queen, Cinderella, Underachiever, Headcase, Biggest Choker

Women's Tennis Blog's contributor Omair is known for his statistical approach to tennis, but now he's summing up the claycourt season, awarding the WTA players titles based on their performance at Roland Garros 2012. Do you agree with Omair's titles? Feel free to comment!

Maria Sharapova – CLAY QUEEN

Having won Stuttgart and Rome, Sharapova was 11-1 on clay coming into the French Open, and she made it 18-1, her lone loss coming at the hands of Serena Williams on the blue clay of Madrid.

Sara Errani – CINDERELLA

Although Errani was the claycourt wins leader entering the French Open, she had never been beyond the second round of the tournament in her last four attempts, had been past the third round of a Grand Slam only once in the last eighteen majors (quarterfinals at this year's Australian Open) and was 0-28 against Top 10 players. It all changed at this year's Franch Open, she not only reached her first Grand Slam final, but in doing so recorded her first two victories over Top 10 players. Although she fell short to Sharapova in the final, she had a great run to the championship match.

Samantha Stosur – UNDERACHIEVER

Stosur's game is best suited to clay and she is a great claycourt player as is evidenced by her record at Roland Garros – she has been to the semifinals or better for three of the past four years, including this year's semifinal. She is one of the fittest athletes on the Tour at the moment, and with her game she no doubt was an underachiever. Read more »

The richness of WTA tennis fashion at the 2012 French Open – video overview

Every Grand Slam is a unique opportunity for tennis fashion to step up and shine in the best light, so here at Women's Tennis Blog I always compile a collage of WTA photos to show the variety of styles in one place. For this French Open I played with movie making a bit and made this slideshow video. I hope you like it! Of course, don't forget to click the YouTube "Like" button if you do! :)

I included a lot of brands in the video, so that you get as comprehensive picture as possible. You can see players wearing Nike, Adidas,  Lotto, Reebok, Anta, Lacoste, Asics, Under Armour, EleVen, Fila and Adidas by Stella McCartney.

As you'll notice in the video, my pick for the best look of the 2012 French Open is Serena Williams, even though her display of the three-shade green Nike dress lasted for just one match (a long and exciting one, though). Also perfect was Ana Ivanovic and all the others who sported the Adidas Adizero style in lime and core energy.

Who's on your best-dressed list?

It's awesome being regular with these fashion overviews, so now we can easily refer to the past and compare. Check out Roland Garros designs in the past two years.

Also, compare the claycourt looks with the styles sported on the blue courts in the Australian sun at Melbourne 2012.

Serena Williams matches her first-round exit in singles with mixed doubles loss

There will be no mixed doubles consolation for Serena Williams. After her shocking first-round upset by Virginie Razzano in the first round of Roland Garros in singles, Serena was sent packing in Paris after a defeat in the first round of mixed doubles. Serena and Bob Bryan lost to Gisela Dulko and Eduardo Schwank of Argentina 7-5 3-6 10-6.

Bob Bryan is current world No.3 in ATP doubles rankings, and was for a long time No.1 doubles player. Also, he's won 78 career titles in doubles and was runner-up in doubles 42 times. Serena herself entered the 2012 Roland Garros match boasting a 19-3 record in five mixed doubles at Grand Slams, which included two titles and two finals. Read more »

Razzano cleaned the path for other players and left Roland Garros

After eliminating Serena Williams, the biggest favorite for the title, Virginie Razzano bowed out already in the second round, falling to world No.88 Arantxa Rus 6-3 7-6(3).

It was a heart-attack exciting victory of Razzano over Serena in round one, but it was pretty much expected that Razzano would not be able to last for long, hence her victory, although epic, is overall bad for Roland Garros 2012, as now we have the biggest star Serena out, as well as her conqueror. I checked out Twitter for hashtag Razzano and people's reactions are "that happens to upsetters", "not surprised", "really dislike Giant Killers sometimes", "typical". Oh well, that's sport.

Defending champion Li Na raced into the third round, brushing aside Stephanie Foretz Gacon 6-0 6-2. Last year's finalist and former champion Francesca Schiavone needed three sets, but got past Tsvetana Pironkova 2-6 6-3 6-1. I read that had Schiavone lost that match, she would have fallen out of Top 25, while now she's ranked No.12. Petra Kvitova cruised past Urszula Radwanska 6-1 6-3, Caroline Wozniacki beat Jarmila Gajdosova 6-1 6-4, and Angelique Kerber defeated Olga Govortsova 6-3 6-2 (by the way, Caroline's new temporary fitness trainer Justyna Krzysik looks, well, awesome!).

As for upsets, you guess, Jelena Jankovic is out, 7-6(4) 4-6 6-4. The 19th seed fought for three hours and six minutes, but in the end handed Varvara Lepchenko her first third round of a Grand Slam in fifteen appearances. The other seed to fall on Thursday was seed No.16 Maria Kirilenko, who lost to Klara Zakopalova 6-4 3-6 6-3. (photo: danlamouette)

Serena takes up mixed doubles with Bob Bryan

Serena Williams will try to turn her devastating Roland Garros first-round loss into a win, by trying to do well in mixed doubles with Bob Bryan. Actually, when you look at Serena's mixed doubles (and regular doubles!) history it's, as you can expect, very successful and the fact that she's paired with a player who's spent over 200 weeks at the No.1 position in doubles (currently he's ranked No.3), I wouldn't be surprised if she wins the trophy. Oh that would be making the best out of the worst situation for Serena.

More than 13 years have passed since Serena last played a mixed doubles competition at the 1999 Australian Open. But her record in that department is 19-3. In five mixed doubles Grand Slams she won two titles – at Wimbledon and the US Open in 1998, and had two runner-up finishes - at Roland Garros in 1998 and the Australian Open in 1999.

Moreover, Bob Bryan is no stranger to the Williams family, as he and Venus were Wimbledon runners-ups in 2006. (via WTA Tour, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Razzano ousts Serena, shakes up Roland Garros 2012, actually floods it with tsunami!

Serena Williams was the biggest favorite to win Roland Garros 2012 with her 17-0 winning streak on clay this season, but she ended up losing in the first round of a Grand Slam event for the first time in her career! Serena used to be 46-0 in first round at Grand Slams. Now Virginie Razzano has spoiled that perfect record and completely changed the perspective of Roland Garros 2012.

Virginie Razzano lost the pretty calm first set, kept her game on a good level in the relatively steady second set, before bringing her fierce side in the last moment, coming back from 1-5 down in the tiebreak to win the set and then even the match by pulling off the highly-dramatic third set (and even highly-dramatic could be an understatement). Final score: 4-6 7-6(5) 6-3.

The first set started quietly, and even though Razzano broke Williams' serve in the first game and soon after had a 3-1 lead, the slow pace of the match somehow assured me that Williams was yet to switch to a higher gear. In the eighth game, a precise backhand in the corner earned Williams a triple break point and she leveled at 4-4, then held her serve and in the tenth game Razzano surrendered the set with a double fault.

A few more games continued in the pretty steady mood of the first set, but then things heated up when Razzano earned two break points at 2-2 and then the third one with a beautiful battle on the net. However, the entertaining set continued to go with serve until the end. I have to admit that when Serena held her serve to love to lead 6-5, I expected her to finish the job in the following game, but the sturdy Razzano converted entertainment into drama, forced the tiebreak AND from 1-5 down in the tiebreak she won 13 straight points to win the set and lead 1-0 40-0 in the third set. Oh, and I forgot to mention that Serena was crying after she lost the second set, as if she knew the defeat was looming. Read more »

Vote: Who will win Roland Garros 2012 on the women's side?

SHARE YOUR PREDICTION!

Who will win Roland Garros 2012?

  • Maria Sharapova (44%, 333 Votes)
  • Serena Williams (20%, 150 Votes)
  • Other (10%, 78 Votes)
  • Agnieszka Radwanska (9%, 67 Votes)
  • Victoria Azarenka (6%, 44 Votes)
  • Petra Kvitova (5%, 37 Votes)
  • Li Na (4%, 32 Votes)
  • Angelique Kerber (2%, 18 Votes)

Total Voters: 759

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Will it be red hot Maria Sharapova or Serena Williams? Once clumsy on clay, Sharapova is now a definite favorite for the Roland Garros trophy. With Stuttgart and Rome titles this season, Sharapova has raised her record in clay finals to 5-0 and she's 11-0 on dirt this season. Also, four of her last five titles have come on clay. The 2002 French Open champion Serena is on a 17-match winning streak on clay, the second best clay streak this century, and even though she withdrew in the semifinals of Rome, she's expected to be healthy for Roland Garros. Just like Sharapova, Serena won two titles on clay this year, in Charleston and Madrid.

World number one Victoria Azarenka has had a stellar season, with a 35-3 win-loss record, four titles, including her first Grand Slam at the Australian Open, and two finals in eight tournaments she played in 2012. As for the clay season, she played the finals of Stuttgart and Madrid and beat three former French Open champions on the way (Svetlana Kuznetsova, Ana Ivanovic and Li Na) before losing to the hottest players of the moment, to Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. Azarenka then withdrew from Rome after comfortably winning her opener, saying that she didn't even want to enter the tournament in the first place, but was forced by the pressure of WTA rules. This will be the first time Azarenka is top seed at a Grand Slam. Read more »

Sharapova beats Kerber, to face Li in the final of Rome

Second seed and defending champion Maria Sharapova advanced to the Internazionali BNL d'Italia final with a 6-3 6-4 victory over Angelique Kerber. Her opponent in the title match will be seed number eight Li. Three of Sharapova's last five titles came on clay, while the only Grand Slam she hasn't won yet is the claycourt Roland Garros, the trophy Li lifted last year.

In both sets Sharapova broke Kerber's serve right away, and even though the twelfth-seeded German did manage to break back and keep herself in the match, Sharapova was in control throughout. The Russian's lead in winners was 27-9, while she committed one fewer unforced than her opponent. Read more »


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