(Provided by Tennis World USA)
Former five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova recalled her 2012 French Open win while watching the 2023 final at Roland Garros between Iga Swiatek and Karolina Muchova. After winning 2004 Wimbledon, Sharapova also won the 2006 US Open and 2008 Australian Open.
In 2012, Sharapova defeated Sara Errani in the French Open final to complete a Career Grand Slam. “This memory (heart emoji). Roland Garros. Championship Saturday,” Sharapova captioned her Instagram Story. When Sharapova won the 2012 French Open, it was her first Grand Slam win after undergoing shoulder surgery in 2008.
“It’s a wonderful moment in my career. I’m really speechless. It’s been such a journey for me to get to this stage,” Sharapova told the crowd just moments after winning the 2012 French Open. Early in her career, Sharapova was struggling a lot on clay and there were probably times when the Russian herself didn’t think winning the French Open would ever be possible.
“It’s the most unique moment I’ve experienced in my career. I never thought I would have that,” Sharapova said at the time.
Sharapova didn’t quit after a major shoulder injury
When Sharapova sustained a major shoulder injury in 2008, she was already a three-time Grand Slam champion and had made a lot of money.
But she didn’t want to quit. “I could have said, ‘I don’t need this. I have money, I have fame, I have victories, I have Grand Slams.’ But when your love for something is bigger than all those things, you continue to keep getting up in the morning when it’s freezing outside, when you know that it can be the most difficult day, when nothing is working, when you feel like the belief sometimes isn’t there from the outside world, and you seem so small.
But you can achieve great things when you don’t listen to all those things,” Sharapova said. In 2014, Sharapova won her second French Open title and that was her fifth and final Grand Slam win.
