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#360view: Serena an obvious favourite but expect Sharapova to shine

#360view: Serena an obvious favourite but expect Sharapova to shine

The French Open is upon us once again and the women’s event is shaping up to be a very exciting one, considering what we’ve seen in the build up to Paris.

- Djokovic feeling confident ahead of French Open
- Serena's injury both a curse and a blessing
- Sharapova believes doubting Nadal “disrespectful”

Obviously, Serena Williams stays really on top of everybody else at the moment, even though she doesn’t like clay that much.

She’s played well lately and has been winning a lot of confidence. I think she pulled out of Rome so she could be more ready physically.

Having said that, Maria Sharapova is in very good form, even though she didn’t play great in the Rome final but she managed to win and that breeds confidence.

Rome is a huge tournament and she won against a very tough player on clay like Carla Suarez Navarro.

We’re seeing Maria with this new shot, the drop shot. I think her new coach Sven Groeneveld helped her a lot to add this to her game. She used it very wisely against Suarez Navarro, who herself could be a very dangerous player in Paris.

Carla’s amazing. This year she has been playing great. The media isn’t talking too much about her but she’s improved so much and she’s got the kind of game to bother any other player in the world. On clay, especially, I think she could be extremely dangerous.

I’m a bit disappointed by Simona Halep. She wasn’t playing very well in Rome, but compare her to Maria, who wasn’t playing well either but at least Sharapova tried to find the right solutions, she used her experience and was smart at the important moments.

But Halep’s choices at the tough moments were disappointing. The first rounds for Halep in Paris are very important for her to find a good rhythm again.

She is 23, still so young and we should really remind ourselves that. Sharapova is 28, Serena is 33, they have much more experience, they’ve had more time at the top.

With Halep, she’s only in her second year at this level. All these great results that took her to No2 in the world, she needs to digest it.

Eugenie Bouchard is another perfect example of this. She started playing grand slams and straight away she made the semi-finals then final.

She had no pressure, it was her first experience. Then after that she has to defend all these points. Everybody was expecting more from her. She has a lack of confidence, clearly.

Petra Kvitova is another one to look out for, if she can play the way she played in Madrid.

Petra isn’t the kind of player than can play seven, eight matches in a row and keeping the same physical level.

She needs some short points and some short matches. So after winning Madrid, I knew it was going to be difficult to stay at the same level in Rome, because of her fitness level.

Now she has had enough time to prepare and has a day off between matches in the first week.

She’s playing extremely well, has lost a lot of weight, which is important on clay, so she has to be more patient, she has to move more… she has a really good chance.


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