Maria Sharapova poses in the Nike dress for Us Open

A little more than a year after the 20-year-old Russian won her second major title, at the 2006 U.S. Open, this question is on the minds of a lot of tennis fans. Sharapova has won just one title this year and has suffered a number of convincing, and embarrassing, defeats. Her latest came last week in the second round of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow. Sharapova, playing her first match since the U.S. Open, lost to 18-year-old Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, ranked no. 32 in the world, 7–6(9), 6–2. She's not certain to qualify for the year-end championships in Madrid, a tournament she hasn't missed since 2003, her first year on the tour. And even if she does make it, she'll likely finish with her lowest ranking since her rookie season (Sharapova, currently ranked no. 4 but essentially tied for no. 8 this season, has finished fourth, fourth, and second the last three years).

Sharapova's slide has caused a lot of speculation about her health and her future. She's struggled with an injured right shoulder all season, and the extent of the injury and progress of her recovery remain unknown. Robert Lansdorp, the technician who built the young Sharapova's strokes, told ESPN this week that this Maria is not the same gal he used to know and suggested she needed a coaching intervention (Lansdorp, it must be said, hasn't thought much of his ex-pupil's game for some time, even when she was winning). There are also questions about whether Sharapova's rivals on the tour have solved her rather limited repertoire of shots, or whether the next generation of players, including Azarenka and Agnieszka Radwanska, are ready to steal the spotlight.

The truth of the matter, it seems, is that we expected too much from Sharapova to begin with, and — as is often the case when someone is built up to this degree at a young age — we're now expecting nothing at all simply because a few things have gone wrong. Sharapova was never that good, at least in terms of variety and athleticism, in the first place. But she's a lot better than she's looked this year and ought to win several more major titles before she trades in her rackets and decides to live off the ungodly sums Nike, Canon, et al., have funneled into her bank account the past few years.

All tennis players have strengths and weaknesses that compete with each other. Sharapova's haven't changed since she won Wimbledon as a 17-year-old in 2004. Mentally, she's first rate; few players have as much intensity point after point, match after match. She isn't much of an athlete, however, despite her height (6 feet, 2 inches) and broad shoulders. In terms of movement, she's much closer to a Lindsay Davenport than a Venus Williams. But when she has time to set up, also like Davenport (another Lansdorp disciple), she can give the ball a ride.

Here's where Sharapova's shoulder, and serve, come into play. When she's serving well, she has more time to move, and more time to control points. At her best, as she was in that 2004 Wimbledon final against Serena Williams and last year at the U.S. Open, when she dominated Justine Henin in the final, Sharapova doesn't necessarily win a lot of free points off her serve, but she uses it to set up easy forehands. Her failures this year start with her serve and end with her serve.