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Sharapova wins French Open women’s single title

Maria Sharapova of Russia won the 2012 French Open women’s title defeating Sara Errani of Italy in straight sets: 6-3, 6-2

PARIS, June 9 (Itar-Tass) — Maria Sharapova of Russia won the 2012 French Open women’s title defeating Sara Errani of Italy in straight sets: 6-3, 6-2. Sharapova also became the Career Grand Slam holder for the first time in the history of Russian tennis.

Prior to that, Sharapova had celebrated three Grand Slam victories: Wimbledon (2004), the U.S. Open (2006) and the Australian Open (2008). Today, Maria won her fourth Grand Slam title, this time on clay. She’s collected all major world tennis trophies.

Sharapova served first in Saturday’s final. She played aggressively attacking her rival from the baseline. Her serve was also good. Maria made it 3-0 in the first eight minutes of the game. The second seed had problems at 4-0 on her serve. Sharapova’s double faults gave Errani a three-point break-point. Errani won the game and made the score 1-4. She also won the next game. After that, Sharapova and Errani won games each on their serves. Errani saved two set points making it 3-5 but finally lost to Sharapova 6-3 in the first set that lasted for 36 minutes.

Sharapova made a break in the first game of the first set. The fifth game was the hardest for Maria and her rival with numerous game and break points. Sharapova won it, making the score 4-1. Errani took one more game but eventually gave the second set, match and championship to Sharapova 6-2.

In her speech at the award ceremony Sharapova said it was a difficult match for her and her Italian rival Sara Errani and expressed the hope that the two of them would play many more matches against each other.

She thanked everybody who supported her: her team, her coach and other instructors who had made her success possible. Maria also thanked her parents. “I love you very much,” she said in Russian.

Maria confessed that she had covered a long way to her Roland Garros victory. She was particularly pleased that ex-world number one Monica Seles was on the stands watching the final. Maria was happy to receive the French Open Cup from Monica Seles. She wanted to meet Seles on court when she was a girl.

Finalist Sara Errani said in her speech that she had spent two wonderful weeks in Paris and that Maria was stronger and deserved to become a champion. Errani will rise to the top ten in the WTO rankings for the first time in her career, while Sharapova will regain her world number one title.

Sharapova became the third Russian after Anastasiya Myskina (2004) and Svetlana Kuznetsova (2009) to win the French Open.

Maria also became the sixth player in the Women Tennis Association history to win the Career Grand Slam after Margaret Court, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and Serena Williams.

Wimbledon and the Olympic games are the next two major events in the tennis calendar.