Olympic finalist Maria Sharapova set to begin her season at Brisbane International with some of the top-ranked players.
The Brisbane International will begin next week with a lineup of the Top 3 players in the world: Ashleigh Barty, Karolina Pliskova and Naomi Osaka. To add to the excitement, the tournament decided to award a wild card to former world no.1 Maria Sharapova.
Currently ranked at 133, the multiple Grand Slam champions feels she had really good offseason and is ready and “motivated to compete” in the new year.
Joining the incredible cohort of players at the tournament are former world no. 1’s Angelique Kerber and Venus Williams as well as Elina Svitolina, Petra Kvitova and Alison Riske. Pliskova returns as the defending champion at the tournament and has won the title twice.
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Sharapova played only eight tournaments this year, constantly struggling with injuries. Beginning with the Shenzhen Open and the Australian Open, she retired from her round of 16 match at the St. Petersburg Open in January and returned to tennis almost six months later at the Mallorca Open.
Struggling to find her rhythm this year, she suffered first-round defeats at Wimbledon and the US Open which became her last tournament of the season. She has played a total of just 15 matches this year. Having won the title in Brisbane in 2015, Sharapova may just show fans a glimpse of her previous form and surprise the world with her performance.
Fans can only hope that she receives another wild card for the first Grand Slam of the year as her ranking is insufficient to qualify for the main draw which makes Brisbane an important tournament for her.
It is at Melbourne Park that she won her third Grand Slam title but it is also where she tested positive for doping in 2016, the sour taste of which she will want to desperately shake off with her performance this year.
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