The moment we have all been waiting for... Maria Sharapova, who has missed about nine months of tennis due to a shoulder injury, said she would play in next week's WTA's Warsaw Open in Poland.

Sharapova has been a top 10-ranked player -- including a stint at No. 1 a year ago -- for much of the past five years but she hasn't played singles competitively since last August and has seen her ranking fall to No. 65.

She announced in a Web site posting Monday that she would play next week in W...

Today Maria celebrates her 22nd Birthday. We at Maria-Sharapova.org wish her all the best, success, and most of all a speedy recovery!

See you on the court!! :-)

Sharapova recently dropped out of the world's top 50 because of a shoulder injury and hasn't played a singles tour match since August.

In Jan 2007, Sharapova became the first tennis player to represent PepsiCo’s Gatorade and Tropicana brands in a deal that expired at the end of last year.

“There is no particular reason other than that the contract has ended, with both parties mutually deciding to go their own way,” said a New York-based spokesman for Pepsi, who struck a deal with Sharapova in 2007 worth a reported $1 million.

Russia's injury-hit Maria Sharapova is gearing up to play in the upcoming French Open, the head of the Russian tennis federation, Shamil Tarpishchev said on Wednesday.

"I spoke with her father the day before yesterday and he told me that she is training seriously for Roland Garros," Tarpishchev told journalists.

The former-world number one has been plagued by a shoulder injury that has left her unable to compete since August last year.

Sharapova has tumbled to 53rd place in the women's tennis rankings since undergoing surgery in October.

Maria Sharapova slid out of the top 50 in the new WTA rankings published yesterday, which had American Serena Williams still No. 1 though she is set to surrender her status to Dinara Safina next week.

Sharapova dropped 23 places to 53rd. The 21-year-old underwent shoulder surgery in October and only recently returned to training.