For all her glitz and her gobs of money, Maria Sharapova is a rink rat - or whatever is the tennis equivalent of that hockey term.
After major rotator cuff surgery in October, 2008, she worked diligently to get back on tour - for several months taking a weekly Monday flight from Los Angeles to Scottsdale, Arizona, where she did her rehab, before returning home on Fridays.
It took her seven months to be fit enough to play and she had only moderate success upon her return - finishing 2009 with a 31-9 record and winning one title, the $2 million (US) Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo in October.
One of her most gutsy displays was at the $2 million Rogers Cup in Toronto where, un-seeded, she won five matches against tough players - Petrova, Bammer, Zvonarvea, A. Radwanska and Kleybanova - before finally running out of gas and losing the final 6-4, 6-3 to Elena Dementieva.
It was revealing to watch Sharapova in many of those matches, including the final, because she was completely out of sync on her serve - double-faulting, hitting faults that landed metres long and also occasionally hitting aces. For someone who had been No. 1 and won three Grand Slam titles, it had to be humbling but she soldiered on.
When her season ended in mid-October, she worked hard at getting her shoulder stronger and entered 2010 much more confident about her serve, a foundation of her game.
She won three exhibition matches before the Australian Open last month - beating Venus Williams in Thailand and Zheng Jie and Caroline Wozniacki in Hong Kong.
But it all came crashing down when she was upset 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-4 by her friend and fellow-Russian Maria Kirilenko in the first round at Melbourne Park. It was a tough draw because Kirilenko is a solid player and good athlete who had nothing to lose against a much better-known superstar opponent.
Afterward, Sharapova could only express regret that she didn't get service returns in play when she led 4-2, 15-40 on Kirilienko's serve in the opening set. After that, it became a battle of nerves and Sharapova, albeit with an improved serve, was unable to summon the confidence she needed to win.
Sharapova, who admits she feels older than her 22 years, calmly summed up her feelings, saying, "I could be disappointed or I could just take it as it is and just go back on the court and just keep working. I choose option two."
Last week, she returned to action for the first time since her premature exit in Australia and annihilated the field at the $220,000 WTA Tour event in Memphis. She didn't lose a set and beat a competitive opponent, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, 6-1, 6-1 in the second round and Sofia Arvidsson 6-2, 6-1 in the final.
"I feel great," she said after winning on Saturday. "I came here for matches - I got five and I got the win, so it was a good week. I served and returned well, two things that are very important indoors. I also did the right things against Sofia today. I worked hard after the Australian Open and little by little things are coming along."
Her next event is the $4.5 million BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., in two weeks.
For all her money - the estimated over $20 million she makes annually - and her NBA player boyfriend, Sasha Vujacic of the LA Lakers, Sharapova remains something of a female jock and seldom, if ever, lets the glamorous aspects of her life sidetrack her from her primary focus - tennis.
The emphatic win in Memphis suggests the misstep of Australia is now behind her and that her shoulder is indeed improved from 2009. Her ranking is up to No. 13 and she has no points to 'defend' until mid May. And, despite what those rankings may indicate, the big five of women's tennis currently is a quintet of former No. 1s - Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin and Sharapova. With no can't-miss, teenage prodigies on the horizon at the moment, it could well be the older women - ranging from Sharapova, 22, to Venus Williams, 29, - who will dominate the game in 2010.