No Place Like 'Home': Sharapova ruled in Stuttgart

Each week, Baseline will take a look at a player who has thrived at one of the stops on the ATP and WTA tours during their career.

Back in 2012, Maria Sharapova had a perfect start to her clay-court campaign in Stuttgart, and established a pattern she would repeat over the next couple of years.

Having reached the final at the Australian Open, and in Indian Wells and Miami that season, she carried her winning ways to the indoor clay event in the German city. This time, though, she wouldn’t be denied as she beat Victoria Azarenka—who stopped her in Melbourne and Indian Wells—for the title.

From there, Sharapova would go on to win the Italian Open and her first French Open, completing the career Grand Slam.

A year later, the Russian repeated her final-round appearances at the first two Premier Mandatory events: winning in Indian Wells and losing in Miami. Once again, Stuttgart took away some of the sting of the loss in Florida as she’d go on to defend her title. Battling through three-setters in her first three matches, she topped Li Na in straight sets in the final.

In 2014, Sharapova entered the tournament at a different place in her game after a recurring injury shortened her 2013 campaign: With unexpected losses at the hands of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Camila Giorgi and Dominika Cibulkova during the year—as well as two more at the hands of Serena Williams—she started Stuttgart without a final-round appearance all season. After struggling through her first match against Lucie Safarova, she breezed through her next three to set up a final against Ana Ivanovic. Sharapova dropped the first set before rallying to clinch her first title of the year.

With that latest win, Sharapova became the first player to take the title in Stuttgart three years in a row. And just like in 2012, she would go on to win the French Open to close out her clay-court campaign for the year, with a perfect start giving way to an even better finish.