Maria Sharapova Should Say Au Revoir To the French Open Tune-ups

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: April 4, 2011

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The new WTA rankings see Maria Sharapova making her first appearance in the top 10 in more than two years.

That's a sure sign that she's heading in the right direction, particularly after two solid tournaments in a row at Indian Wells, California and Miami.

There's one thing she should do, though, that could contribute to a further rise up the rankings in 2011:

Skip the clay-court tournaments leading up to the French Open.

It's not as if she's played bad on the dirt over the past couple of years since her comeback from a shoulder injury: Sharapova made the quarters at Roland Garros in 2009 and won the title in Strasbourg, France last year.

It's evident that her clay-court savvy has grown and she's shown that she wants to keep improving on the surface. But while she should definitely play the French Open, letting go of the Strasbourgs of the world could do a world of good.

Here are five reasons why taking the next few weeks off could help her hit the top five by the end of the year:

Rest for the Weary Arm: As everyone knows, competing on the clay requires a player to hit a lot more balls. What would be a winner on a faster surface most of the time ends up being a rallying stroke on the dirt.

That's a lot of stress on the joints for any player, especially one recently removed from major shoulder surgery.

Eliminating thousands of balls hit over the period of a few weeks could leave her stronger for the second half of the long tennis season.

Surface Attention: Speaking of the second half of the season, that's when things really start to speed up with the month-long stretch of grass-court tournaments, then the hard-court stretch before players go indoors to wrap up the year.

Sharapova has won multiple titles in those types of conditions, including two Grand Slams.

Few players possess the power to keep up with her on the grass and...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis

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