Tennis diva Maria Sharapova says she is relishing making her Stuttgart debut here as the clay-court season gets under way with the statuesque Russian up against all four grand slam winners. The 25-year-old has added Stuttgart to her usual WTA clay-court events in Rome and Madrid as she looks to prepare for the French Open at the end of May, which is the only grand slam event she has yet to win.
Having reached the Australian Open final in January, Sharapova says her aim is to work on her strength as her persistent shoulder problems finally seem to be over following her last surgery in 2009. "My goal for this years clay court season is to improve even more physically," said the Russian, who is seeded second here behind world number one Victoria Azarenka.
"I can withstand longer matches and I recover better, I'm still learning about the clay court game which is a little bit like a 'cat and mouse' game', as the ball comes back more often and differently." All current grand slam champions will be appearing in Stuttgart.
Top seed and world number one Azarenka of Belarus is joined by US Open winner Samantha Stosur of Australia and Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic. Stuttgart heralds the start of the women's clay-court season ahead of Roland Garros at the end of May where China's Na Li will be looking to defend her title and Sharapova is relishing the challenge in Germany.