Parisians like a bit of chic with their forehands and backhands, and some casual tennis fans probably think that the sparkly, spangly Maria Sharapova will go on court at the French Open wearing a pair of six-inch stiletto heels. Plus, Sharapova famously compared her movement on the Roland Garros clay courts last season to that of a "cow on ice".
But for all the talk of stilettos and skittering hooves, she goes into the tournament, starting on Sunday, wearing standard tennis shoes and with the possibility of completing a career grand slam, all at the fine old age of 21. That would allow her to join Margaret Court, Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and Serena Williams in the elite club of women to have won all four majors.
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To think that, when Sharapova first emerged on the scene, a few commentators described her as "the new Anna Kournikova", another perky, pony-tailed Russian blonde starting out on an empty tease of a tennis career.
Well, Kournikova did not win much apart from endorsement contracts and mid-match offers of marriage from the stands. Sharapova was just 17 when she lifted the Venus Rosewater Dish at Wimbledon in 2004, and she has since added the 2006 US Open and 2008 Australian Open titles. Justine Henin's shock retirement last week did not just hand the world No 1 ranking to Sharapova; it also significantly increased the chances of the Russian winning in Paris for the first time. Henin had won the French Open four times in the past five years. In the American tennis vernacular, Roland Garros was "Justine's house".
So Sharapova could be about to make some history on the terre battue of south-west Paris. Watch out, Carla Bruni, for here comes the wannabe First Lady of Paris. "I think that even if Justine was in the draw, a lot of players would still have had a shot at the title," Sharapova has observed. "This year has been different, results-wise, from last year. I think Justine was the one dominating throughout most of last year, especially in the latter stages. This year it's been a couple of players, including myself. It's a grand slam stage. I think everybody has a chance. You know, I probably sound like a broken record player, but it all comes down to whoever takes chances. Hopefully that will be me."
Sharapova's game is better suited to slicker, quicker grass and hard courts, and trying to win the French Open "is going to be one of the biggest challenges of my career". But last year she had her best result at Roland Garros, when she reached the semi-finals, and that was despite suffering a worse shoulder problem than the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Plus, she had previously reached the quarter-finals on two occasions, in 2004 and 2005. Sharapova is no clay-smeared rookie.
Last month, Sharapova lifted the first clay-court title of her career when she won at Amelia Island in Florida. She reached the semi-finals in Rome last week, but took the precaution of pulling out of the match because of a calf strain. Still, officials at the women's tour fully expect Sharapova to take her position at the top of the draw.
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