Maria Sharapova still wears her long, shimmering silver earrings. She still elevates the sound of her ground strokes, the grunts that reverberate throughout stadiums and indicate the effort needed to produce her whip-like forehands and backhands.
What Sharapova is now trying to locate is a new comfort zone with her serve. She has a rebuilt shoulder, an in-progress service motion and the firm belief that at 22, she may have some aches and pains, she may need to spend more time working out and less time just playing, but ultimately winning tennis matches is a passion that hasn't ebbed.
While she isn't seeded, the former Wimbledon, US Open and Australian Open champion will be a top draw at the LA Women's Tennis Championships that began yesterday at the Home Depot Centre in Carson.
It is fellow Russian Dinara Safina who has earned the No 1 spot in the 56-woman draw. While the top eight seeded players get first-round byes, Sharapova was to play Jarmila Groth of Slovakia yesterday.
It is an unfamiliar place for a woman more used to playing on Sundays instead of Mondays in these non-Grand Slam tournaments.
Sharapova needed the surgery to repair her torn right rotator cuff and this will be her sixth tournament back on the Sony Ericcson WTA Tour. Sharapova was once ranked No 1. Now she's ranked 62nd, after she was soundly beaten by Venus Williams in a quarterfinal at Stanford last week. But this comeback is a work in progress, Sharapova said.
On the advice of her doctors and her coach, former ATP Tour player Michael Joyce, Sharapova has tried to shorten her service motion and eliminate extra movement with her arm and shoulder. "Absolutely, the idea is to make serving easier on my arm," Sharapova said.
What Sharapova is now trying to locate is a new comfort zone with her serve. She has a rebuilt shoulder, an in-progress service motion and the firm belief that at 22, she may have some aches and pains, she may need to spend more time working out and less time just playing, but ultimately winning tennis matches is a passion that hasn't ebbed.
While she isn't seeded, the former Wimbledon, US Open and Australian Open champion will be a top draw at the LA Women's Tennis Championships that began yesterday at the Home Depot Centre in Carson.
It is fellow Russian Dinara Safina who has earned the No 1 spot in the 56-woman draw. While the top eight seeded players get first-round byes, Sharapova was to play Jarmila Groth of Slovakia yesterday.
It is an unfamiliar place for a woman more used to playing on Sundays instead of Mondays in these non-Grand Slam tournaments.
Sharapova needed the surgery to repair her torn right rotator cuff and this will be her sixth tournament back on the Sony Ericcson WTA Tour. Sharapova was once ranked No 1. Now she's ranked 62nd, after she was soundly beaten by Venus Williams in a quarterfinal at Stanford last week. But this comeback is a work in progress, Sharapova said.
On the advice of her doctors and her coach, former ATP Tour player Michael Joyce, Sharapova has tried to shorten her service motion and eliminate extra movement with her arm and shoulder. "Absolutely, the idea is to make serving easier on my arm," Sharapova said.
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