The women's French Open is wide open with the announcement of Justine Henin's retirement.

Who will succeed the diminutive Belgian, the champion of the past three years at Roland Garros? There are plenty of players in form including Maria Sharapova. Some fans would say she was lucky to land the world No.1 position when Henin was taken out of the WTA rankings. But to be fair, the Russian has been the in-form player all season and deserves her new status.

The French Open draw was made on Friday and Sharapova looks to have an easy passage into the fourth round.

'Zvonareva loves the clay, loves the French Open and will love to win against her younger opponent'


She will surely trounce fellow countrywomen Evgeniya Rodina in the first round before going on to play either US youngster Madison Brengle or qualifier Bethany Mattek. Neither of these players will threaten the power of Sharapova and in the third round Maria looks set to come up against 32nd seed Karin Knapp of Italy.

Although Knapp has had a good season to date that has taken her to a career high ranking I feel she has no outstanding shots to threaten Sharapova with and the Russian should make the last 16 without the loss of too many games, never mind sets!

It is in the fourth round where I think things could become more difficult for Sharapova. She is likely to come across one of her compatriots, either Maria Kirilenko or Dinara Safina, a recent clay-court winner in a Tier One event in Berlin.

She defeated a host of top players in the tournament, and with two career wins over her compatriot Dinara is going to be confident against the world No.1, especially as one of those wins was actually at Roland Garros in 2006.

On the other hand, Kirilenko is also vastly improving this year and also has a clay-court victory in 2008 to her name in Estoril, Portugal. Either girl has the game to dominate rallies and Sharapova needs to devise a strategy to overpower her feisty opponents, or she could find herself going home sooner than she anticipates, especially if she feels the injury that she picked up in Rome.

The domination of Russian women is clear to see in tennis as Maria's likely opponent in the quarter-finals should be one of another Russian duo, either Vera Zvonereva or Elena Dementieva.

The likely winner on clay of that match is Zvonereva - and I see no other result than a win for her against Sharapova as well.

The Russian is a former quarter-finalist at Paris and has reached five finals this year. Sharapova has a 5-3 winning record against Zvonareva but I feel on clay Vera can cause major damage to the Sharapova serve and have Maria running all over the court.

Zvonareva loves the clay, loves the French Open and will love to win against her younger opponent. Earlier in the year I picked Zvonareva to be a real star of the WTA tour and again I think the French Open could be the perfect place for the Russian world No.12 to win her first Grand Slam.

I know it's a brave statement but it's good to see the championships so wide open this year.

Zvonareva has won more matches on tour this season than anyone else and it will take a very good player to defeat her over the next two weeks. Sharapova may have to wait until Wimbledon to grab her next Grand Slam.