With the women's draw looking so unstable you may ask yourself why hasn't Maria Sharapova tried to compete for the number one ranking; why let Serena Williams have all the fun?
Sharapova has been absent from the past two grand slam tournaments because of tough shoulder injury. Although she has reported that she is out on the court hitting and joked that had the Aussie Open been pushed back a few weeks she would be able to compete, she has mis-calculated. The Russian born, has recently dropped out of two WTA tournaments in Paris and Dubai, which are being held in mid February. Sharapova still does not believe that her shoulder is strong enough to compete at the level that is required of her.
Whether she is strong enough should not be the only question Sharapova is asking of herself. The other being, when she is ready to compete how will she measure up compared to the rest of the competition? To answer this question, if the womens draw stays the way it is now, which is no woman stepping up and holding onto the number one ranking for longer than a few months then I think Sharapova shouldn't have any problem re-joining the WTA tour. Sharapova is a strong enough competitor to give any of her oppenents a run for their money.
However, injuries can also affect your mentality and can cause athletes to change the way they play. Some pros may change their strokes for the better; getting rid of bad habbits that may have caused the injury in the first place. However, some pros may favor their injury forcing their game to change and they therefore will not be the same competitor they used to be.
Where will Maria stand? Will she be grouped together with those that are forced to retire at a young age because of an injury or will she prove that those two grand slam wins were not a fluke but rather something that proves just how strong and competative she really is? Only time will tell.
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