Sharapova seeks redemption on Roland Garros clay
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[May 24, 2018]
By Danielle Rossingh
PARIS (Reuters) - When Maria Sharapova
last played the French Open in 2015, she did so as defending
champion.
Denied a wildcard by Roland Garros organizers last year on her
return from a 15-month doping ban, the Russian was dogged by injury
and controversy as she tried to get her career back on track.
Now 31, it would have been understandable had the five-times grand
slam winner hung up her rackets to focus on her ever expanding
business empire.
Not Sharapova, one of the game's toughest competitors.
"That's why I still continue to do this, because I have that passion
of figuring things out and getting it done, whether it's a tough
day, or whether it's a great day," Sharapova said in a phone
interview earlier this year.
Although Sharapova was the world's top-paid female athlete for more
than a decade and has earned close to $300 million on and off the
court according to FORBES, nothing comes close to competing for the
sport's biggest prizes.

"You are very much in the moment," said Sharapova, a three-times
finalist in Paris. "Your team just hands you over, literally on to
the stage, onto your universe for the next hour, hour-and-a-half,
two or three, and you have to find a way to deliver.
"Everything that you put into it previously, you have to pour out
onto the court, every fear that you've faced before, you have to
bring out onto the court. You have to be powerful, but yet you have
to handle being vulnerable at moments when things don't go your
way."
STRUGGLE FOR FORM
Having ended 2017 outside the top 50, Sharapova endured one of the
worst periods of her career as she lost four straight matches.
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Russia's Maria Sharapova in action during her first round match
against Australia's Ashleigh Barty REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi/File
Photo

In March, she ended a four-year spell with Dutchman Sven Groeneveld
and brought back her former coach from Sweden, Thomas Hogstedt, with
whom she won her first French Open title in 2012 as she completed
the career grand slam.
Now, after strong performances in Madrid and Rome this month,
Sharapova is back among the seeds and beginning to believe that she
can win the title for a third time.
Finally fully fit, Sharapova reached the quarter-finals in Madrid
and beat reigning French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko to reach the
semi-finals in Rome, a huge boost of confidence as she returns to
the scene of her most successful grand slam.
After losing a close three-set match to world number one Simona
Halep in Rome, Sharapova called her progress "a step in the right
direction".
"After losing those matches, you still have to put yourself on the
line and show up and deliver, and do it with authority," she told
reporters at Rome's Foro Italico.
"What I'm most proud of is (that) I had a lot of opportunities in
the last few weeks in Madrid and here to just back down, to let
little things bother me. But I got through them.
"I set up real good situations for myself; a lot of court time and
match play. All good things that I wanted."
(Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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