Maria Sharapova's tweets over the last several months have predominantly been about her Sugarpova candy brand. However, with her return to tennis about two months away her Twitter tweets from her verified account seem to have taken a much different slant. Increasingly, Sharapova is posting about her tennis practicing and her pictures show her on the tennis courts.

The Russian has not contested a tour match since losing in the 2016 Australian Open quarterfinals. Shortly after the event she made major news for testing positive for a banned substance.

What followed was a debate over how long she should be suspended for, with one year and three months ultimately settled on. The suspension will be over in late April of this season and it may give Sharapova the chance to challenge for the French Open title, a tournament that she has won twice before.

Sharapova marketed Sugarpova heavily

Sharapova had an exhibition match against Monica Puig just before Christmas, a match that was played in Puerto Rico. However, other than that the Russian has not really made any tennis headlines and the ones affiliated with the exhibition match were minor. Tennis fans that followed her social-media posts were bombarded with pictures of Sharapova modelling and posing for her candy brand - Sugarpova.

Those posts seemed to have stopped for the time being, at least at her Twitter account, with the passing of Valentine's Day.

Sharapova is scheduled to make her return at late April's event in Stuttgart.

That is a tournament that was won last season by Angelique Kerber. The event is a clay-court tournament that is played ahead of the larger and more important mandatory tournaments in Rome and Madrid. All of those tournaments, plus others, build up to the French Open, the clay-court Grand Slam from Paris.

Opportunity awaits for Maria Sharapova

If Sharapova is near her best tennis then she certainly does have a chance to win the title at Roland Garros. Besides having won the event twice, the field of talent on the women's tour is arguably a little diluted right now. Presently, Angelique Kerber is slumping, Simona Halep is slumping, and Agnieszka Radwanska is slumping. Karolina Pliskova is certainly playing well, but her clay-court abilities aren't clear. Furthermore, Petra Kvitova is sidelined with her injury from the knife attack in December, Victoria Azarenka is on the return following her maternity leave, and Madison Keys started the season with an injury announcement.

The opportunity is there for a great player to claim a lot of titles right now, with Pliskova leading the way in tour-level events and Serena Williams claiming the first major of the season. Sharapova has had tons of difficulty with Serena, but the Russian's motivation promises to be sky-high in the months ahead.
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