Has Maria Sharapova actually turned the corner?
Sharapova did a very good job of getting herself back into contention last year after having to take off nine months due to shoulder trouble. While she spent most of the summer fiddling with her service motion with marginal success and was often plagued by double faults and poor second serves, she improved the other parts of her game and was devastating with her returns and surprisingly solid on defense. Now the Russian says that she’s feels confident enough in her shoulder to be able to employ her old, long wind-up in her serve and if she can get back to dictating with that stroke and keep her nose in front of points, there’s no reason why she can’t be a major title contender. But even Sharapova knows that the proof will be in the pudding and she has to avoid too many early-round struggles if she going to be able to slug it out with Serena and the Belgians later on. If she does, a fourth Grand Slam title is possible.
