The period of time when Maria Sharapova was sidelined by a career-threatening shoulder injury seems like an eternity ago.
Next week, the Russian superstar is guaranteed to return to the number-two spot in the WTA rankings. She’s also notched final-round appearances at two out of the past three Grand Slams: last year’s Wimbledon and this season’s Australian Open. Had she won one of those two, odds are that she would be back in the top spot.
As it is, though, her two opponents in those matches—Petra Kvitova and new world number-one Victoria Azarenka—handled Sharapova quite easily. Sharapova’s experience was expected to play a huge role in her match against Kvitova, but she was unable to keep pace with the young Czech. As for Azarenka, she established herself as the tournament favorite early on with the way she romped through her matches.
On the other side of the Melbourne draw, Sharapova was doing some romping and routing of her own: In her first three matches, she only lost five games total. She dropped sets to Sabine Lisicki and Wimbledon conqueror Kvitova in later rounds, but those two going into the event had dark horse and contender status, respectively, and were true tests of where her game is.
After the Australian, Sharapova resurfaced this past weekend for Fed Cup duty against Spain won her opening rubber match. Fed Cup participation sets the stage for one of her major goals for 2012: the summer Olympics.
The tournament venue will be one she’s quite familiar with: the players will be competing at the All-England Club, the site where a young teen shook up the tennis world in 2004 by defeating the legendary Serena Williams in the final.
There are many players on the tour who have a strong grass-court pedigree, and Sharapova is definitely one to them. Realistically, she could walk away with either a Grand Slam or Olympic Gold, or both, all within the span of a few weeks.
This week she’s the top seed at the Open GDF Suez in Paris, which features top 10 stars, such as Marion Bartoli and Li Na, in the mix. Coming through a tough tournament could possibly spur her to solid runs at the U.S.’ two biggest tournaments outside of the U.S. Open: Indian Wells and Miami. Sharapova won Indian Wells in 2006, but hasn’t pulled it off in Miami yet.
Should her good form carry over in the months ahead, Miami could end up being hers—and propel her to major heights over the course of the season.