Sharapova adds star power

Maria Sharapova is back – and like she has done throughout her career, she is dominating headlines.

There is a multitude of different storylines too – from the moral dilemma of whether a player returning from a 15-month drug ban deserves a wildcard, to just how successful the five-time Grand Slam champion can still be? There has been questions too of just why the WTA Tour has been so welcoming… although this one is easier to answer. The truth is Maria is a star – and women’s tennis needs her.

The five-time Grand Slam champion commands attention when she’s on tour and her noticeable absence has been further amplified by the absence of some other high-profile names.

Rewind to this week five years ago and the world’s top-three ranked women were Victoria Azarenka, Sharapova and Petra Kvitova.

At Stuttgart in 2012, Sharapova defeated both Kvitova and Azarenka in the final two rounds to claim the title. Between them they looked set to dominate the tour for a long time, but that hasn’t happened.

There have been injuries and form dips. Then Sharapova got banned, Azarenka got pregnant and Kvitova shockingly injured in a random robbery.

All remain prominent and much-loved WTA figures but so far this season, their impact has not been made on the court.

Five years ago, between them they had 24,005 combined ranking points. Now they have 3,031. Sharapova is currently unranked, new mother Azarenka sits at No.319 and Kvitova has slipped to No.15 – and the WTA has, undeniably, missed them.

The men’s game doesn’t look so different. Five years ago Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer were the top three ranked players. All remain dominant forces today.

Could you imagine how different the men’s game would look if these three had all been simultaneously missing, like their female counterparts, for a long period? Unthinkable.

It got us thinking, just how much has changed in five years? Lets take a look at the ranking changes since this week in April 2012…

The WTA Tour has experienced a lot of instability. Only Serena Williams (who is now on maternity leave) and Agnieszka Radwanska remain in the top 10 today.

The men’s game has been considerably more consistent, with little change at the top of the rankings (although the late-blooming Stan Wawrinka has emerged from No.22 to join the Big Four).

Juan Martin del Potro is the only high-profile exception, having missed a large proportion of the past five years with wrist injuries:

Can a lot change in five years? The answer is clearly yes. As Maria, Vika, Petra and the WTA Tour all know.

READ MORE: The WTA’s golden generation that never was