Maria Sharapova’s earned her place at the French Open this year

Maria Sharapova is going into the French Open after her best run, cracking the Top 30, since coming back from her doping suspension.

What a difference a year makes.

Last year, Maria Sharapova was in the midst of her comeback to tour after being suspended for 15 months. At the time of her suspension, the tennis star had been the highest paid female athlete thanks to her lucrative endorsement deals of 11 years — and has thence been replaced by Serena Williams. The Russian expected to return to the game with open arms and already had her Unstoppable biography in the works to coincide with her triumphant return to glory.

But a script and real life are vastly different.

The beginning of her comeback seemed to be going according to plan, with wild cards being gifted in the clay tournaments, a surface that favored her game late in her career. She impressed with her first event in Stuttgart, making the semis in her first outing, but soon produced mixed results, not rising up the rankings as rapidly as she had hoped. Combined with all the complaints of favoritism by her peers on the tour — with Genie Bouchard outright calling her a “cheater” — along with Sharapova’s agent calling the players “journeyman players,” the Maria Sharapova comeback was a tepid affair.

A smooth transition into the grand slams was halted last year. The French Open officials outright refused a wild card. When officials at Wimbledon went into a heated debate about the wild card to the main draw, the Russian player seemed to wise up to the current mood and opted to play the qualifying rounds, a rather humbling intention for such a famous player. But injuries prevented that from happening. In fact, injuries hampered the 31-year-old for the rest of the year, with Sharapova regaining some steam towards the end of the year, winning her single tournament in Tianjin and progressing well in others.

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Sharapova has also worked harder this year, climbing up the rankings after a year of rather “humble pie.” After all, the world No. 29 was not out due to maternity leave, but for doping. She has put in hard work throughout to get back to competitive form and has qualified for the main draw of the grand slams herself, without any free passes into the events. She has also moved up 30 places since the beginning of the year, to world No. 29. Her semifinal run at the Italian Open was her best performance post-suspension yet.

The French Open is the only grand slam tournament Maria Sharapova has won twice among her five majors. She’s looking in fine form going into the slam this time.

Instead of following a storyline crafted by her agent, Maria Sharapova has earned her seeding this year in Roland Garros through sheer hard work all year long. Let’s see how much she can make of her opportunity in France.