2012 SUMMARY
Titles Won (3): Stuttgart, Rome, Roland Garros
Grand Slam Highlights: Roland Garros (Winner), Australian Open (Runner-Up)
Win/Loss Record: 56-10
Record Against Top 10: 10-8
WTA Championships History: Winner (2004), Runner-Up (2007), Semifinal (2005, 2006) Round Robin (2011)
Worryingly, for the rest of the WTA, Maria Sharapova seems to be getting better with age and she arrives in Istanbul for her sixth tilt at the WTA Championships on the back of arguably the best year of her career.
A paragon of consistency throughout, Sharapova kicked off 2012 with a sixth Grand Slam final at the Australian Open, where, after winning a semifinal thriller with Petra Kvitova, she came up short against an inspired Victoria Azarenka.
Further near misses were to come in Indian Wells and Miami before the Russian finally got her hands on some silverware as the tour returned to Europe for the clay court season.
For someone who once described her own movement on a clay court as reminiscent of "a cow on ice", Sharapova looked decidedly sure footed this spring - winning three of the four events she contested on the surface.
The first of these came in Stuttgart, with revenge over Azarenka in the final, but bigger prizes were to follow, with victories in Rome and then Roland Garros. The last of these, completed with victory over surprise finalist Sara Errani, saw Sharapova add the only major to have eluded her and become just the sixth player in the Open Era to complete the Career Slam.
After her heroics on the terre battue, Wimbledon was something of an anticlimax as the then-World No.1 slumped to a surprise fourth round defeat to Sabine Lisicki. This disappointment was short lived, though, as a return to the All-England Club for the Olympics three weeks later brought with it further silverware, this time in the form of an Olympic silver medal.
In New York, all these exploits seemed to finally be catching up with Sharapova, as she labored past Nadia Petrova and Marion Bartoli before finally running out of gas against Azarenka in the semifinals.
However, she looked close to her devastating best once again in Beijing, reaching another final, and if she can find top gear in Istanbul she will has every chance of capping off an historic season with yet more silverware.
