Tennis: Claycourt converts in French Open showdown

Claycourt converts Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka will go up against each other in the French Open semi-finals on Thursday with either Serena Williams or Sara Errani to come in the final.

Sharapova’s early career struggles on the red clay at Roland Garros are well documented and she once described her movement on the slippery surface as being “like a cow on ice.”

But the learning process was always in operation and last year she took everyone by surprise by winning the title to complete her Grand Slam set.

In the past Azarenka has been similarly uneasy on clay, saying last year that although she was not married to the surface, she was trying to get to know and understand it better.

Asked after her 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 quarter-final win over Maria Kirilenko if things had improved she replied: “Well I don’t have a ring on my finger yet.

“But I feel like we made a step forward. We are moving in together. That kind of relationship is moving forward and see what happens after.”

Three years younger than Sharapova at 23, Australian Open champion Azarenka enjoys a winning 7-5 head-to-head record against the Russian, although they have not played this year. Their last encounter on clay was in Stuttgart last year when Sharapova won 6-1, 6-4.

Their semi-final, Azarenka said would be “intense”.

“She’s definitely an incredible fighter, and she always fights for every ball no matter what the score is,” she said.

“That’s something, the top players are so, so good at, and that’s what makes it difficult to play against them.”

The defending champion and second seed wobbled badly early on in her quarter-final match against Jelena Jankovic, dropping the first set 6-0 before opening her shoulders to turn on the power and score a 0-6, 6-4, 6-3 win.

She would need to step up a gear, she readily admitted, if she is to get past Azarenka and reach a second straight final in Paris.

“We haven’t played on clay in over a year. Last time was in Stuttgart. She’s playing really well this tournament. Always a tough match,” she said.

“We have played each other so many times there are really no secrets between each other in terms of our game styles and what we do well and not.”

Whoever wins on Thursday will likely have a daunting prospect in the final in the shape of Serena Williams if, as expected, the top seed, who is on a career-best 29-match winning streak, sees off lightweight Italian Sara Errani in the other semi-final.

Williams is 13-2 head-to-head against Sharapova and against Azarenka she is 12-2. She has never lost to either on clay.

The 15-time Grand Slam champion strolled through her first four matches of the tournament for the loss of just 10 games, but she was rocked in the quarter-finals where she was a set, 2-0 and break point down against former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.

But she dug a way out of that hole and on the face of it Errani, who lost last year’s final to Sharapova, poses little or no dangers for the American, at 31, by far the oldest of the semi-finalists.

Errani, however, is the sole out-and-out claycourter left in the tournament and she will look to her tactical prowess on the surface to drag Williams out of her stride.