Queen of Clay? Former No. 1 Maria Sharapova is gunning for the title after a stellar 2012 clay season that saw her win the French Open title, and a 2013 season that has started with the Stuttgart claycourt title.

the Top 8 seeds receive first round byes, and tough openers include (15) Kohlschreiber vs. (WC) Baker, winner to meet the Harrison vs. Tomic victor; (10) Fish vs. F-Lo, (8) Monaco possibly vs. The Worm 2nd rd., (4) Ferrer possibly vs. Wawrinka 2nd rd., (14) Nishikori vs. Granoller, winner to possibly meet (WC) Blake; (11) Simon vs. Baghdatis, winner to meet Raonic vs. Gasquet victor; (6) Del Potro vs. Nalbandian/Haas winner, (9) Isner vs. Viktor Troicki, victor to face (WC) Hewitt vs. Mikhail Youzhny winner; (3) Murray possibly opening vs. (WC) Querrey, and (13) Dolgopolov vs. Davydenko

“When I started the tiebreak, I said, ‘Francesca, come on, pay attention and take two or three of the first six or seven points.’ Nothing, 6-0,” Schiavone said. “I went to the other side and told myself there is not too big a difference in winning or lose one point, so keep going and push. We will see what happens. And then I won.”

Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic will complete the rain-delayed French Open final on Monday morning, but the grasscourt season won’t wait.

“I think Victoria is the player to beat,” Williams said. “She has won I don’t know how many tournaments this year alone. That’s an amazing amount. So if you look at the stats, you just have to put her up there as the player to beat.”

People are not so well at Indian Wells.

Top 10 seeds into the third round Wednesday were (2) Rafael Nadal straight-setting Tommy Haas, (3) Roger Federer receiving a walkover from German Andreas Beck who suffered a back injury, (7) Tomas Berdych topping Olivier “The Roach” Rochus in straights, and (10) Nicolas Almagro outlasting Grigor Dimitrov 6-0 in the fifth.

Petra Kvitova beat No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki to win the WTA’s Player of the Year award.

The Western & Southern Open features 18 of the Top 20 women’s players, with seeds Caroline Wozniacki, Vera Zvonareva, Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova, Li Na, Petra Kvitova, Francesca Schiavone, Marion Bartoli, Andrea Petkovic, Samantha Stosur, Agnieszka Radwanska, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Jelena Jankovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Ana Ivanovic, and Peng Shuai.

Rafael Nadal opens play at Wimbledon on Monday.