Maria Sharapova is relishing the chance to earn a place in history if she can achieve a career grand slam by winning Saturday's French Open final.
Russian can become 10th woman to win the full set
Maria Sharapova is relishing the chance to earn a place in history if she can achieve a career grand slam by winning Saturday's French Open final.
Italian Sara Errani stands in her way but the newly-crowned world No.1 is a hot favourite to deny the 21st seed a first Grand Slam title.
The Russian burst onto the scene by winning Wimbledon as a 17-year-old in 2004 and had picked up the US Open and Australian Open titles by the time she was 20.
But then shoulder problems struck, putting her out of the game for a year and her career in jeopardy, and it has been a very long road back to the top.
Now the 25-year-old is hoping to become the first woman since Serena Williams in 2003 to complete her set of slams - nine women in all have achieved the feat to date.
"It will be special, my first Roland Garros final," said Sharapova. "There's not many firsts in my career, as I have been a part of many tournaments and fortunate enough to win many.
Dream
"So to be in this situation is going to be quite new, but it's something I've dreamed of for a long time. I'm really looking forward to it."
Sharapova and Errani both trained at Nick Bollettieri's academy in Florida, although they did not know each other and have never faced each other before.
Errani had won only one match at Roland Garros before this year but she has been having a brilliant season, reaching the quarter-finals at the Australian Open and winning three WTA Tour titles, all on clay.
To give her further confidence heading into Saturday's showpiece, she
teamed up with compatriot Roberta Vinci to win the women's doubles final at Roland Garros on Friday.
Sharapova is certainly not about to underestimate her opponent, saying: "We have never played against each other, but I certainly know she's a dangerous player because of the way she's played here and because of the way she's performed on clay this year.
"She's won so many titles already on clay, and these last couple of weeks she's really been improving, beating great players and is really confident, and that's obviously a dangerous opponent."
