The former World No. 1 tennis player Maria Sharapova plans to be 100 percent healthy by the upcoming tennis season, and assures fans that she will be poised to defend her Australian Open title as soon as January rolls around. According to Maria Sharapova's agent, Max Eisenbud, Sharapova has a set timeline for her recovery, and her recovery is going as planned. The Russian tennis star is slated to be hitting the court again on January 7, which will mark her first match back. This will be an exhibition match in Hong Kong.

It is believed that by entering back into the tennis season on January 7, Maria Sharapova will be able to keep herself in good shape so that she can slip right into the first grand slam of the year, which will begin on January 19 in Melbourne Australia. The Melbourne, Australia grand slam on January 19 is an important one for Maria, as it will involve depending her Australian Open title, and possibly even regaining her role as the World No. 1 tennis player. Sharapova previously held the World No. 1 ranking, but lost it when she had to bow out of the 2008 season early because of a shoulder injury.

Sharapova has been shelved for nearly five months now, after having torn her rotator cuff in a much earlier tournament match. She continued to play with the injured shoulder between April and July, unaware of the level of damage that had been done. It was an MRI scan that finally indicated that the injury was more than met the eye, and when it became apparent that Sharapova would be unable to heal while touring, she bowed out of numerous tournaments including the Beijing Olympics in China, and the U.S. Open. After bowing out from a number of tournaments because of the stress of the injury, Sharapova finally designed to bench herself for the remainder of the 2008 year.

The injury that benched Maria Sharapova forced her to slip in the World Tennis Association's standings, so she ended the season as the World No. 9 tennis player, rather than the World No. 1 that she represented before her injury. On the tour this season she did manage to win a total of three titles, the last of which came on April 13 in Florida. She finished with a 32 - 4 record, and earned almost $2 million dollars despite a disappointing finish to the season.

Before her romp in the Australian Open where she gained the title that she intends to maintain, Sharapova also took wins in the United States Open in 2006, and the Wimbledon tournament in 2004. Fans of Sharapova are prepared to cheer her through a productive season, as Maria seems ready and willing to jump right back into tournament play following several months of rest and recovery.

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Lleyton Hewitt, regarded as a former world number one tennis player in the entire world is planning to make his grand, official return from hip surgery very soon. His intention is to make his grand return from this injury at the Sydney International tennis tournament which is slated to begin in January. He announced this plan of his on Tuesday, October 7, 2008 and has no apparent intention of going back now. Hewitt seems to know that 2009 is going to be an excellent year for him and his tennis game despite his injury and subsequent surgery, because he is already planning to take Australia by storm during the Australian Opening in 2009.

Hewitt has won the warm up event four times in the Australian open to date. Following a disappointing showing during the Beijing Olympics which occurred in August, Hewitt decided to focus on his hip recovery and his recovery from surgery. According to Hewitt, this recovery since the August Beijing Olympics has been going well. The twenty year old tennis player has stated numerous times that he is really excited about the Australian summer, and he appears to be prepared to bring his A game to the courts.

"It is an exciting time for me;" he told reporters, "I am already feeling refreshed, reinvigorated and excited about the challenge ahead. Sydney is a happy hunting ground for me. Some good hard matches will certainly help me in my preparation for the 2009 Australian Open."

Lleyton Hewitt is now ranked as number 67 in the world. He may have dropped significantly in world ranking since his injury and his disappointing performance at the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing, China, but this is clearly not the direction where he intends to take his tennis career. Down but not out, Lleyton Hewitt is showing that he is serious about returning to the game of tennis with all of his strength, hoping to significantly improve his rank in the world, especially during the summer Australian Open in 2009 which seems like a promising place to really make a stand.

Lleyton Hewitt's career may not be where he wants it right now, but this twice grand slam champion is not down and out, however. This is because his drive to return from his hip surgery just in time for the Sydney International will surely show that he is more than ready to return from injury to dominate the tennis courts once again, especially during the 2009 Australian Open which is slated to begin in the summer.

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