For the sixth year in a row, Women's Tennis Blog is using the relaxed off-season period to review the on-court styles of our top players and brands. Of course, who else will kick off the series than our fashion darling Maria Sharapova. Let's see what the Russian wore in the year that saw her complete a Career Slam and win the Olympic silver.

In 2012, the Nike-clad Sharapova continued her subdued sporty femininity. Glamour, layers, frills and popping details have not described the Russian's tennis style since last year. Of course, Masha is still the most glamorous WTA player, but on court that glamour is toned down now, fitting the simple, everyday wearable category. There still are details in her designs, but you have to look deeper to find them.

White with electric green accents was Sharapova's color combination for the Australian sun and it transcended to the indoor hardcourt of Coubertin Stadium in Paris.

At Indian Wells, the 25-year-old wore a blue dress with light blue scales on the sides and in the back, matching the color of the straps.

*Visit the full list of retrospections of WTA players' yearly outfits*

Very ordinary red tanks followed for four tournaments, paired with simple white and black skirts. Read more »

During the 2012 French Open Croatian Petra Martic attracted the most attention so far in her career by reaching the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time and ousting a Top 10 player, Marion Bartoli, for the first time. Following the claycourt Grand Slam, Martic ascended to a career-high of No.42 in the WTA rankings. Lured by her spring success, I decided to feature the 21-year-old Petra in the Childhood Photos and Videos of Women's Tennis Players series.

At the age of four, little Petra approached her mother Sandra with a definite decision that she wants to be a tennis player, even though her mother played handball and her father soccer. Besides naming tennis as her profession of choice, Petra added: Read more »

Omair, our contributor in charge of the world of tennis stats, who has recently started his own blog, was inspired by the early losses of Roland Garros 2012 runner-up Sara Errani and Roland Garros 2012 champion Maria Sharapova at the subsequent Wimbledon and dug into the historic stats for a possible pattern.

Roland Garros seems to cast some spell on the players doing well there. This year marks the third straight year that the Roland Garros finalists have lost before the quarterfinal stage of Wimbledon. To find a player who did the Roland Garros-Wimbledon double, you have to go back to 2002, when Serena Williams defeated Venus Williams in a rematch of the Roland Garros final.

This year when Maria Sharapova won her maiden Roland Garros title, it seemed that she would be able to cast that spell away, given her good results at Wimbledon, but the spell was just too strong for her as she fell victim of German hard-hitter Sabine Liscki in the fourth round. With Sharapova out, this marked just the sixth time in the Open Era that a top seed has failed to make it to the quarters [Steffi Graf (first round in 1994 , Martina Hingis (first round in 1999 and 2001), Ana Ivanovic (third round in 2008) and Caroline Wozniacki (fourth round in 2011)]. With Sara Errani already falling to Yaroslava Shavedova in the third round, this marked the ninth year since the Open Era began that the Roland Garros finalists have failed to make it to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon. Read more »

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 »

Our stats contributor Omair analysed the women's tennis French Open final between Maria Sharapova and Sara Errani before the match and now he's back with a post-match analysis. As you'll see, Omair's predictions translated into the final!

Maria Sharapova walked onto the court with the determined and focused look on her face, or it would be more appropriate to say the look of a champion. History was calling, and Sharapova was responding, screaming at every point, fist pumping on winning them, striking the ball cleanly and with supreme authority. Sara Errani, on the other hand, seemed nervous when she walked on to the court, which showed in her opening games as well.

Sharapova had two straight-set losses in her last two major final appearances, at Wimbledon last year at the hands of Petra Kvitova, and at Australian Open this year at the hands of Victoria Azarenka, both of whom were first-time Grand Slam finalists. Sharapova made it third time lucky, with history on the line, she was not to be denied by yet another first-time finalist.

Errani was in a dream of her own, having recorded her first wins over Ana Ivanovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Angelique Kerber and Sam Stosur, and to add to that having recorded her first ever Top 10 win (in the quarterfinals over Kerber) in 29 tries, and backing it up with another Top 10 win in the semis (against Stosur), making it her first Slam semifinal and then final. She was hoping to complete her dream run by laying her hands on the coveted trophy, however, her opponent had other plans for her.

Sharapova started the match brilliantly, and helped by Errani's nervousness raced out to 4-0, before Errani got herself together to break Sharapova at love and hold her own serve to close the gap to 4-2. Sharapova held her nerve and serve to go up 5-2. Errani saved two set points in her service game before holding to force Sharapova to serve for the set, and serve she did taking the first set 6-3. Second set started in almost identical fashion with Sharapova building a 4-1 lead before Errani broke back to make it 4-2, but Sharapova responded likewise breaking her opponent at 15 to give herself a chance for the championship. The final game was indeed the best one, with Errani saving two match points, one courtesy of Sharapova's long forehand and the other with a perfect drop shot, and Sharapova saving a break point with an incredible cross-court backhand. Sharapova made it third time lucky, and completed her coveted career slam when a backhand from Errani landed into the net.

SARA ERRANI STATS

Errani's serve has never been a force, and with a returner as great as Sharapova, Errani was bound to pay for it. As I had mentioned in the preview that Sharapova would punish Errani's both first and second serve, Sharapova did just that, as is evident from the stats, Errani's first serve winning percentage fell by 15% in comparison to the average of her previous six matches.

MARIA SHARAPOVA STATS Read more »