Sharapova Destroys Ana

Without dropping a single set the entire tournament, Maria Sharapova ran through Ana Ivanovic 7-5, 6-3 to win the 2008 Australian Open singles championship.
At age 20, Sharapova is just one Grand Slam championship away from a career Grand Slam, a phenomenal accomplishment by itself that only three other women in the women singles' draw (Serena, Henin, Davenport) have accomplished their entire careers.
Only two women have achieved won career Grand Slams (that is all four Grand Slam singles titles) since Steffi Graf won a Grand Slam in one calendar year (actually a Golden Slam with her Olympic win in the same year, 1988). The first was Steffi Graf, who won the equivalent of two more career Grand Slams after her Golden Slam. And then there was, of course the Serena Slam.
But now Maria's just one step away from joining that elite duo. And wouldn't she like to make it a crowd at three by adding a fourth Grand Slam title--the very next event in fact--the French Open (or, as the French refer to it, Roland-Garros). Unlike Davenport, who must be feeling better about her second-round loss this year after Sharapova's tremendous run, there seems little reason to think Sharapova can't one day win Roland-Garros after the way she played here, dismantling the world's best clay court player, Justine Henin, with startling ease in the quarterfinal before advancing to and prevailing in the final.
And this time, when Sharapova lifted the trophy, the lid to the top of it didn't even fall off, as it did when she won at the U.S. Open--a most auspicious sign.
There may be more than corny puns in the making between Sharapova and Ivanovic. Could another rivalry along the lines of Evert and Navratilova, Graf and Seles or Venus and Serena be on the horizon?
Ana certainly had her moments against Sharapova, despite collapsing at the end of the second set. Not everyone wins their first and second Grand Slam finals, as Sharapova did.
Maybe the third time, as there almost certainly will be for Ivanovic, really will be the charm. But she may discover that she'll have to play the tough points better against someone who is amassing a gaudy Grand Slam record and defend her weaker backhand side much better, as Steffi Graf did in such unforgettable style. Ivanovic doesn't seem to have that extra, unheralded stroke so many great champions have and that Graf had in spades: footspeed.
Sharapova doesn't either, but that hasn't kept her from trouncing the fleet Jankovic in the semi-finals. With a gaudy record of three championships out of the four Grand Slam finals that she's been in, it's Sharapova is winning the race among her generation to the Grand Slam singles titles on sheer guts.
Some may think she's icy. Some may think her "Come Ons," particularly when her opponents dump balls in the net, are completely over the top.
But even if she doesn't ever have the chance to draw a heart in the clay the way Gustavo Kuerton so memorably did after one of his French Open titles, Sharapova's game is all about heart.