TENNIS in DEPTH.

On the personal front, Sharapova is evolving.

Always preternaturally mature and unafraid to take charge of her career, Sharapova’s once omnipresent (and often controversial) father, Yuri, has faded into the background. He was seldom seen at events in 2009, a trend that started four years ago.

“We’ve been a great team for many years, but there’s a life for me, there’s another life for you,” Sharapova says her father told her after winning the Australian Open. He follows her matches religiously, says Sharapova — an only child — but spends most of his time hiking, skiing and pursuing business interests in Russia.

Filling some of the void for Sharapova is new romantic interest Sasha Vujacic of Slovenia, who plays guard for the Los Angeles Lakers. They started dating when she returned from Tokyo in the fall following her breakup with Charlie Ebersol, the son of NBC Universal Sports & Olympics chairman Dick Ebersol.

An apparently smitten Sharapova says a big part of the attraction is their common experience as world-class athletes.

“We rarely talk about sports, but it’s just an understanding of what we do,” she says. “We never have to talk about it. We just know. It’s there. It makes it easier and nicer.”

Sharapova won’t be taking it easy or nice on the competition. That has always been her forte: laser, deadly, clinical focus.

The question is whether she can win more majors and be a dominant player again. Joyce for one is convinced she can.

“She finished the year in a pretty good spot, and it looks to me like she could have a pretty good Act II,” Joyce says.

Sharapova insists she will as long as her shoulder stays healthy.

“It’s definitely not the easiest thing to be watching Grand Slams and to see a few suspect candidates in the later stages of the tournament,” says Sharapova, who clearly believes she should be holding the trophy, regardless how fleeting the euphoria is.

Observers say this season could reveal where Sharapova will stand in the pecking order.

Says ESPN’s Pam Shriver: “If she doesn’t have a run of supreme confidence in 2010, it will be a concern whether she’ll have another run again. It’s a huge year for her to show whether she’ll be a force in her mid-to-late 20s or not.”

In that sense, Melbourne’s loaded draw will be a litmus test.

“A name like Maria’s is always good for fans to see in the draw,” 2009 U.S. Open champ Kim Clijsters says, “and as a competitor you like to play against those players who bring out the best in you.”

Not since the 2006 Australian Open have the most prolific Grand Slam winners of the last decade — Serena and Venus Williams, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Clijsters and Henin— joined Sharapova at the same major.

“It’s going to be a pretty full deck,” Sharapova says.

Plus, there are paybacks. Sharapova is winless against the Williams sisters in their last six meetings, and her 0-4 stretch against defending Melbourne champion Serena goes back to 2004, the year she deposed the 28-year-old American at Wimbledon.

However, she doesn’t expect to be crisscrossing the globe chasing trophies much past 30.

“Not because I don’t love the sport,” she says. “I think at a certain point, especially as a woman, there are other things to life.”

Sharapova wants to have kids, though she can’t replicate her family’s recent history. Her mother gave birth to her at 20.

“We’re already past that,” she laughs.

Courtsey of Douglas Robson   USA Today.

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