Olympic finalist Maria Sharapova is set to miss the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
The former world no.1 accepted that she will miss out on the 2020 Olympics when she signed on to play matches at the World Team Tennis matches in California which are held during the same time.
In any case, Sharapova’s chances of qualifying for the games are very few as she would have to be among the top four athletes in her country however she ranks at 14 in Russia.
Further, the World Anti-Doping Agency’s ban on Russian athletes playing under their flags at the games could rule her out of the race given the 15-month ban she received for doping. In the rare case that she would have made it through WADA, the Olympics requires players’ participation at the Fed Cup which Sharapova missed after the previous Olympic cycle.
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Sharapova participated in the 2016 Cup prior to the discovery of her doping test fail. As a result, Sharapova missed the 2016 Olympics in Rio as well.
The multiple Grand Slam champion’s 2019 season wasn’t much better. Her return to tennis after the ban saw her unable to return to her previous form and an injury-marred season.
Injuries plagued her year allowing her to only play eight tournaments. Sharapova ended the season with a first-round loss at the US Open to Serena Williams having won the title in 2006.
Sharapova started the year with a fourth-round run in with Ashleigh Barty at the Australian Open but was forced to retire from the St. Petersburg Open just a few days later due to injury. She returned to tennis almost five months later in June in Mallorca where she failed to progress beyond the round of 16.
At Wimbledon and the Canadian Open, she lost in the first round and at the penultimate tournament of her season, she lost in the round of 32 at the Cincinnati Masters.
Despite the rough season, Sharapova is extremely motivated to perform well in the 2020 season. Sharapova insists she still has the “internal fire and motivation” to play.
In “awe” of Rafael Nadal’s stellar career despite his injury struggles, she said:
“I’m in awe of Nadal’s entire career. I think his schedule over the years has been really smart. From his point of view, he likes a lot of matches to feel confident, but you need to be healthy to do that, so you have to make the right decisions and that’s certainly something that I can learn from him.”
A step in that direction, Sharapova won the exhibition match in Abu Dhabi against Alja Tomljanovic in straight sets this week. Looking ahead at the first Grand Slam of the season, the Australian Open, she said:
” I definitely look forward to going to Australia and seeing how things go, see how the body holds up there.”
Hopefully, the multiple Grand Slam champion can regain her game and remain injury-free through the next season starting in Melbourne in January.
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