How many lives does Maria Sharapova have as a player? After a decade’s worth of winners, double faults, shrieks, injuries, coaching changes, clenched fists and Grand Slam titles, she must be up to her fifth or sixth by now. But the 27-year-old keeps coming back. Sharapova started 2014 trying out a new coaching team, and trying to shake off an old shoulder problem. After getting out of the gates slowly, she ended it at No. 2 in the world, and she won her fifth major title, in Paris, in the grittiest performance of the season on either tour.
Yet much like Serena Williams in 2014, it was hard to feel confident in Sharapova from one tournament to the next, and even one day to the next. She melted down in the round of 16 at three of the majors, and struggled against the tour’s best players at the WTA Finals. Once again, her best results came on clay, in Madrid and Paris. Sharapova should be commended for turning herself into a bona fide dirtballer in the middle of the career, but has the shift adversely affected her on other surfaces? She hasn’t won a Slam outside of Roland Garros since 2008.