A Milestone Year For Maria Sharapova

Posted: Nov 18, 2015

PRAGUE, Czech Republic – Injuries tried to keep her down, but she just kept getting back up – Maria Sharapova has battled through a series of injury struggles, including a leg injury that kept her out for almost four months, and scored the 10th Top 10 year-end ranking of her legendary career this week.

Sharapova, who spent most of the season ranked No.2 in the world right behind Serena Williams, dipped down a bit after the aforementioned leg injury that sidelined her from early July to late October, falling to No.4 right before the year-end WTA Rankings this week. But it actually speaks volumes – to miss almost half the season and still finish No.4 is a testament to how good her first half was.

She spoke about the ups and downs of 2015 at the WTA Finals in Singapore a few weeks ago.

“It was frustrating because you train and want to see some sort of reward – and by reward I don’t mean wins, I mean just going out there and seeing how you translate your work onto the field,” she said.

“I did quite a few starts and stops those four months. But I had the luxury to give myself the chance to heal, because I was somewhat consistent in the first half of the year and knew I was already in the WTA Finals. It was frustrating not competing, but it was good to not play through a tough injury.”

Those first six months brought her a number of huge results – most notably her 10th Grand Slam final at the Australian Open, where she fell to Williams, but also a pair of Premier titles in Brisbane and Rome, and a run to the semifinals of Wimbledon, where she was again thwarted by Williams.

After the lengthy lay-off Sharapova looked fantastic in Singapore, powering through her three round robin matches to qualify for the semifinals, where she was edged by an on-song Petra Kvitova.

And this week, No.4 on the year-end rankings – the 10th Top 10 finish of her career, and perhaps even more impressive is that nine of those 10 Top 10 finishes have come in the Top 5.

She’s finished the last five years in a row in the Top 4, too.

“I didn’t have expectations coming into the WTA Finals. Of course it’s always tough to sit down after a match and say you’re happy, especially after you lose it,” she said. “But I think it would be quite unprofessional of me to not take a lot of positives out of this week. I think there’s a lot to look forward to in the off-season and next year – as well as a couple of more matches coming up pretty soon.”

The World No.4 was referring to the Fed Cup final – she, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and the doubles team of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina will take on an all-star Czech team featuring Kvitova, Lucie Safarova, Karolina Pliskova and Barbora Strycova. She’s eyeing her first personal Fed Cup title.

“I’m really glad that I have a chance to compete and be part of the team,” the Russian said.

“I’m just looking forward to the experience – it’s something new for me.”