By Chris Oddo | Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Can Maria Sharapova regain her form to become the second player in WTA history to defend the Indian Wells title? This and more in five burning questions.
Photo Source: Reuters
With the women set to begin first-round action at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, there are quite a few unresolved questions. Here are five that we're dying to know the answer to:
>>> Sharapova Tabbed to Repeat: WTA Draw Preview Here
1. Will Victoria Azarenka put health issues behind her and get back to winning ways?
Just a year ago most of us considered Victoria Azarenka the next great WTA champion. She had just won her second Grand Slam in Australia, and a few weeks later she took down three straight top 10 players in a run to the Doha title that featured a massive victory over Serena Williams in the final.
Since then Azarenka has ebbed and flowed. While she time and time again displays the world-class talent that could make her a dominant force in the WTA (see another win over Williams in Cincinnati and a near miss at the U.S. Open final), Azarenka has laid out a path of perpetual injury struggle (see last year's Indian Wells, Wimbledon and WTA Championships). One wonders if eventually the physical nature of the game combined with the perceived frailty of Azarenka's body will sabotage her narrow chances of reclaiming the world No. 1 ranking or winning more Slams.
She'll have the chance to erase questions about her health this week, as Azarenka will put her walking boot aside and take to the court for the first time since her Australian Open loss to Agnieszka Radwanska. Is Azarenka, currently ranked fourth and seeded third, ready to start carving her path back to the top of the WTA? Or are her health struggles going to continue to wreak havoc on one of the most talented players in the game today?
2. What is Simona Halep's ceiling?
The Romanian has won her last seven finals, all of them taking place in the last nine months, and she has defeated a top 10 opponent in the last four of them. Any hype or excitement surrounding the 22-year-old is certainly well due. She's climbed into the top 10, and is seeded sixth in the desert, but all eyes will remain on Halep for the remainder of the year to see if she has the quality to survive a season as the hunted rather than the hunter.
If she can continue to reel off bigger and better titles, and press further in the Grand Slams, we could have an elite player for years to come in Halep. But the honeymoon is over for Halep. She'll be expected to follow up on her remarkable success against a field that is dead set on knocking her back down from her perch. How will she fare?
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3. Can Maria Sharapova engineer a stunning return to form?
The four-time Grand Slam and two-time Indian Wells champion will be bidding to become the second WTA player to repeat as champion in the desert, and the truth is that nobody really knows what to expect from Sharapova. Well, of course, we'll get the grit, the determination and the go-for-broke shotmaking that has made her a tour de force over the last few seasons, but will Sharapova be healthy when she takes the court this week?
She pulled out of last year's U.S. Open and WTA Championships, citing shoulder bursitis, and because Sharapova tends to keep her cards so close to her vest, nobody really knows if she is still struggling to get the shoulder under control. One thing's for certain: Form follows fitness, so maybe her recent stint as an Olympic commentator and candy hawker will have done wonders for her form, in that it finally let her rest the injury.
Bottom line? With more points to defend than any other player over the IW/Miami swing, Sharapova will need to perform well over the next four weeks. Whether her shoulder will allow that is another story entirely.
4. Can Li Na avoid the post-Slam winning blues?
Li will be the top seed at Indian Wells, and that's only going to increase the pressure on the two-time Grand Slam champion. The last time Li won a Grand Slam it took her four months to win back-to-back matches and 15 months to win her next title. She's become a more stable, more mature player under the tutelage of Carlos Rodriguez, but a letdown is probably more likely than a hot streak at this point, at least in the short term.
5. Will the American women regain traction?
The American women have 11 players in the top 70, and that depth is quite impressive. But the depth has yet to give birth to a champion other than the Williams sisters, and after the Americans' abysmal showing in Fed Cup without Serena and Venus in the fold, it's starting to look like the USA has created a lot of above-average players, but nobody that possesses that je ne sais quoi to make them great.
Questions abound: Is Sloane Stephens just good enough to tantalize, but not good enough to break into the top 10? Is Madison Keys too movement-impaired to become a true phenom on the WTA Tour? From the rest of the young Americans, are there any potential top 10 players?
It's too early to panic, particularly in the case of Stephens and Keys, who are both young and ultra promising, but time is a wastin', and there are handfuls of young talents (Muguruza, Bencic, Bouchard, Nara, Puig, Tomljanovic, plus many more) eager to be that next rising star who actually fulfills their promise. The race is on...