The French Open will not get the men's final it wanted but there can be no complaints when Maria Sharapova defends the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen against Serena Williams here on Saturday.
Williams, not only the best player in the world now and for most of the past decade but among the greatest of all time, is, at 31, in the sort of form that would intimidate a tank, while Sharapova has committed herself to all-out war.
"I have never really thought about going out on the court and just trying to be consistent, not playing my game and just getting the ball back," she said after beating Victoria Azarenka 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 in the first semi-final on Thursday.
Sharapova concedes nothing to her American rival in willpower, and that is as good a mix as any fan of the women's game could wish for, because, with the exception of Azarenka, there probably was no one else here the past fortnight equipped to give Williams a decent fight.
Certainly, the little Italian Sara Errani, despite excellent form in bursting into the top five this month, could not inconvenience Williams, who hit her fourth ace to win 6-0, 6-1 in 46 minutes, probably the most embarrassingly one-sided win at the business end of this tournament since Steffi Graf beat Natasha Zvereva 6-0, 6-0 in 32 minutes to win the title in 1988. So not a lot more needs to be said about this debacle, save that the crowd gave Errani a giant cheer when she won her only game.
Going on her six performances here and form reaching back to the start of the year, Williams, with 15 majors to her name (including the 2002 French title), will start favourite in her 270th match in a slam but it should still be a final to savour. Russia v USA would have been a dream match in the Cold War but, even though Sharapova has become all but an American since her arrival in Florida at the age of six, she brings a lot of old-world grit to her tennis.
The clay 15 feet either side of the net in any match between Sharapova and Azarenka will always remain largely undisturbed, certainly more pristine than the air, which again on Court Philippe Chatrier was alive with the banshee wailing of their commitment. Shackled, willingly, to the baseline, they belted the ball between them as if it were a mutually cheating boyfriend, and subtlety was rendered a poor second cousin to power. Drop shots might as well have been illegal.
Although she has 10 million Facebook followers and is worshipped around the world as the flawless queen of tennis, Sharapova is not universally adored in the locker room, which concerns her not at all. When she steps on court, she is feared as a ruthless competitor. (Elena Baltacha tells the story, affectionately, of how Sharapova would swear at her in Russian between points, the cooing audience oblivious to the exchanges). And, just as she needed her toughness to come back after losing the first set to love in the quarter-finals against Jelena Jankovic, so she found resolve against Azarenka.
After 20 minutes the defending champion, who double-faulted to drop serve at the start, came brilliantly to life, thunder in her every shot, as Azarenka wilted, and she served out for 6-1 with an ace. The crowd had the heroine they had come to see.
The Belarusian is no sweet-lipped debutante, although the Azarenka who intimidated young Sloane Stephens in Melbourne earlier this year turned up a little late in this game. For a while it looked as if she would bend completely to Sharapova's will. She survived a serious bombardment of her serve to hold for 2-1 with an ace after two deuce points, and went on to take the set in curious circumstances.
Sharapova, down 2-5, ignored the light rain as umbrellas sprouted around the arena and was more put out by a line call against her at 15-30. She saved the first break point with an ace, then double-faulted to hand Azarenka parity before they went off for half an hour. The pendulum had swung back wildly to the uncertainty she betrayed at the start of the match.
When they resumed on the damp, heavy dirt, there was little in it until Sharapova broke twice for 5-2. Then, serving for an appointment with Williams, she lost her poise alarmingly, slipping and nearly tumbling in one awkward return and hitting her 10th and 11th double faults of the match (and 26th of the tournament) to blow four match points and give Azarenka a final look.
Sharapova was never going to waste another three match points and she wound it up after two hours and 10 minutes with her 12th ace, straight down the middle – stylish and dramatic to the end.
Williams, not only the best player in the world now and for most of the past decade but among the greatest of all time, is, at 31, in the sort of form that would intimidate a tank, while Sharapova has committed herself to all-out war.
"I have never really thought about going out on the court and just trying to be consistent, not playing my game and just getting the ball back," she said after beating Victoria Azarenka 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 in the first semi-final on Thursday.
Sharapova concedes nothing to her American rival in willpower, and that is as good a mix as any fan of the women's game could wish for, because, with the exception of Azarenka, there probably was no one else here the past fortnight equipped to give Williams a decent fight.
Certainly, the little Italian Sara Errani, despite excellent form in bursting into the top five this month, could not inconvenience Williams, who hit her fourth ace to win 6-0, 6-1 in 46 minutes, probably the most embarrassingly one-sided win at the business end of this tournament since Steffi Graf beat Natasha Zvereva 6-0, 6-0 in 32 minutes to win the title in 1988. So not a lot more needs to be said about this debacle, save that the crowd gave Errani a giant cheer when she won her only game.
Going on her six performances here and form reaching back to the start of the year, Williams, with 15 majors to her name (including the 2002 French title), will start favourite in her 270th match in a slam but it should still be a final to savour. Russia v USA would have been a dream match in the Cold War but, even though Sharapova has become all but an American since her arrival in Florida at the age of six, she brings a lot of old-world grit to her tennis.
The clay 15 feet either side of the net in any match between Sharapova and Azarenka will always remain largely undisturbed, certainly more pristine than the air, which again on Court Philippe Chatrier was alive with the banshee wailing of their commitment. Shackled, willingly, to the baseline, they belted the ball between them as if it were a mutually cheating boyfriend, and subtlety was rendered a poor second cousin to power. Drop shots might as well have been illegal.
Although she has 10 million Facebook followers and is worshipped around the world as the flawless queen of tennis, Sharapova is not universally adored in the locker room, which concerns her not at all. When she steps on court, she is feared as a ruthless competitor. (Elena Baltacha tells the story, affectionately, of how Sharapova would swear at her in Russian between points, the cooing audience oblivious to the exchanges). And, just as she needed her toughness to come back after losing the first set to love in the quarter-finals against Jelena Jankovic, so she found resolve against Azarenka.
After 20 minutes the defending champion, who double-faulted to drop serve at the start, came brilliantly to life, thunder in her every shot, as Azarenka wilted, and she served out for 6-1 with an ace. The crowd had the heroine they had come to see.
The Belarusian is no sweet-lipped debutante, although the Azarenka who intimidated young Sloane Stephens in Melbourne earlier this year turned up a little late in this game. For a while it looked as if she would bend completely to Sharapova's will. She survived a serious bombardment of her serve to hold for 2-1 with an ace after two deuce points, and went on to take the set in curious circumstances.
Sharapova, down 2-5, ignored the light rain as umbrellas sprouted around the arena and was more put out by a line call against her at 15-30. She saved the first break point with an ace, then double-faulted to hand Azarenka parity before they went off for half an hour. The pendulum had swung back wildly to the uncertainty she betrayed at the start of the match.
When they resumed on the damp, heavy dirt, there was little in it until Sharapova broke twice for 5-2. Then, serving for an appointment with Williams, she lost her poise alarmingly, slipping and nearly tumbling in one awkward return and hitting her 10th and 11th double faults of the match (and 26th of the tournament) to blow four match points and give Azarenka a final look.
Sharapova was never going to waste another three match points and she wound it up after two hours and 10 minutes with her 12th ace, straight down the middle – stylish and dramatic to the end.
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