I think you raise a very good point. Besides just hitting more balls, the weight of the ball on clay and the movement are also pretty grueling.

It’s too bad the grass court season is so short. Perhaps if there were more chances on grass, Maria would hold off.

I wonder if Sharapova is looking for a career slam, though? She has a better chance than Rafter ever would have had – there are very few clay court specialists on the WTA tour who could consistently beat her. . .Of course I’m sure she’s not thinking she’s winning it this year. Oh well, I guess we’ll have watch and see how it goes.

However…

I can’t think of a worse part of the season to get back out there. While she doesn’t necessarily worry about having to serve big on the dirt, she’s going to have to hit a ton more balls. A shoulder injury just doesn’t affect the serve; I’m assuming she feels a catch on any shot except for volleys.

If she came back during the grass-court season, she could let the grass do some of the work for her with it beefing up her serve and her groundies.

When I think of her shoulder injury, I think of Patrick Rafter. It gets overlooked, but he was actually a pretty good clay-court player at the height of his career. After his shoulder injury, he barely played on it and went on to make two Wimbledon finals his last two years on tour. I don’t think there’d be anything wrong with her going that route for a couple of years; she’s still pretty young.

Anyway, Less balls hit equals a longer shelf life: At least that’s how I see it. And sorry for the long comment!

Let’s hope its not another false dawn…though she did say she was ‘done setting timetables’ so that is slightly more promising…