Sharapova On Long Road Back To The Top

MELBOURNE : Russian Maria Sharapova has had a frustrating year to forget but feels her fitness is returning and is confident of making a big splash at next week’s Australian Open.

Sharapova won the opening Grand Slam of the season in convincing fashion in 2008 but was deprived of defending it last year after failing to recover from shoulder surgery, which kept her out of action until May.

She returned to the circuit and won the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo in October, but didn’t play again until exhibitions in Thailand and Hong Kong this month and has yet to rediscover the form that took her to world number one. Russian Maria Sharapova