Serena Williams, Sharapova set for Paris showdown

Injuries forced Serena Williams to pull out of two tournaments this year, but with a 25-1 record she's the women's favourite at Roland Garros in Paris.

Arguably the best women’s player of her generation, No. 1 Serena is favoured to claim the 2015 French Open as the 20th grand slam title of her illustrious career as the clay court tournament begins on Sunday.

 Williams is a narrow 5/2 favourite over rivals No. 2 Maria Sharapova and No. 3 Simona Halep, both listed at 4/1, to storm Roland Garros and join the quite short list of all-time greats with 20 or more major titles. Owning a 25-1 record his year, as well as a 17-2 career record over Sharapova, Williams sits at 19 career titles, three back of Steffi Graf and five behind Margaret Court. 

Williams already triumphed over Russia’s Sharapova in the Australian Open finals to start the season, earning her sixth title there, and took down Halep in the Miami Open semifinals 6-2 4-6 7-5 last month.

If there’s any reason to doubt Williams at the French it’s her recent spat of injuries this year.

The 33-year-old most recently pulled out of her third round match with Christina McHale in Rome earlier this month due to some type of elbow injury. And despite making her first trip back to Indian Wells in 14 years, Williams withdrew from her semifinal matchup with Halep with a knee injury.

Williams already owns two French titles, but it’s a far lower total when compared to her success at the three other slams. The American has six U.S. titles and five she attained from Wimbledon. 

Defending champion Sharapova, 28, can not escape the fact that Williams has defeated her 16 straight times. The last time Sharapova beat Williams was in 2004, at the Tour Championships and Wimbledon finals. —IBTimes