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Sharapova Finally Gets Her Chance at Paris Indoors
By Erik Gudris Photo Credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve
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(February 6th, 2012) After a week off for Fed Cup duty, the women of the WTA are back in regular season action at the Open GDF Suez, better known as the Paris Indoors, a Premier level event that's now run by tournament director and former winner Amelie Mauresmo.
With last year's winner Petra Kvitova not participating, Maria Sharapova enters as the top seed as she hopes to rebound from her disappointing loss in the Australian Open finals to Victoria Azarenka. Sharapova already received one gift just by showing up in the city of lights as she will rise to No. 2 next week regardless of her results. Sharapova is excited to finally play the event after she had to withdraw last year due to illness. "Last year I got sick and I had the doctor coming every day to the hotel. I was asking him 'Can I play? Can I play?' and he said 'No, not when your face is orange.'"
Also hoping for a boost in Paris is Li Na who was last seen crying in her press conference after her fourth round loss to Kim Clijsters in Melbourne in which the Chinese star had four match points. Li Na revealed today that she's been practicing the last few days at Roland Garros where she won the French Open, but her form going into this week is still up in the air.
Marion Bartoli enters as France's best player and if her semifinal run at Roland Garros is an indicator, she may be ready to climb even higher in the rankings. "If I want to get into the top five, I need to play better when I'm not at my best. When I'm on top form and I'm not tired, I've played a lot of good matches this year, but my style of play requires a lot of energy, and there is too much of a gap between my on-days and my off-days."
Jelena Jankovic is also in the draw, but after pulling out of Fed Cup action due to an upper thigh injury, her participation is in question. Americans Christina McHale, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Varvara Lepchenko round out the field.
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