"Eleven years," Williams said in French during the trophy ceremony. "I think it's unbelievable. Now I have 16 Grand Slam titles. It's difficult for me to speak because I'm so excited."
The national anthem of the USA, played for the winner, was heard for the first time for a singles champ at Roland Garros since 2002, Williams' last title here.
A year after crashing out of the French Open's opening round for the first time in her career, Williams returned to play one of her best wire-to-wire tournaments.
She dropped 29 games, matching her best Grand Slam effort (she also dropped 29 games on her way to the 2002 U.S. Open title). The 31-year-old American is sixth on the all-time Grand slam singles list, two majors behind Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova.
Fist pumping and screaming "C'mon!" almost from the get-go, Sharapova survived a 0-40 deficit in the opening game and then broke Williams for 2-0.
But the 26-year-old failed to convert two game points on her serve the next game, and Williams — invoking some vocal histrionics and menacing fist pumps of her own — broke back.
Sharapova didn't fade, breaking Williams again for 4-4, but the American had too much firepower. Her baseline drives were deeper. Her serves were more accurate. Her defense was better.
"She played a great match," Sharapova said. "She played strong, she played deep, served really good; served better than I did."
Williams had 10 aces, including three in the final game, the last and biggest one (123 mph) came on match point.
"Well, honestly, at that point I was just so nervous," Williams said about those three final-game aces. "I thought, I'm not going to be able to hit.
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