Maria Sharapova Should Say Au Revoir To the French Open Tune-ups

The new WTA rankings see Maria Sharapova making her first appearance in the top 10 in more than two years.

That's a sure sign that she's heading in the right direction, particularly after two solid tournaments in a row at Indian Wells, California and Miami.

There's one thing she should do, though, that could contribute to a further rise up the rankings in 2011:

Skip the clay-court tournaments leading up to the French Open.

It's not as if she's played bad on the dirt over the past couple of years since her comeback from a shoulder injury: Sharapova made the quarters at Roland Garros in 2009 and won the title in Strasbourg, France last year.

It's evident that her clay-court savvy has grown and she's shown that she wants to keep improving on the surface. But while she should definitely play the French Open, letting go of the Strasbourgs of the world could do a world of good.

Here are five reasons why taking the next few weeks off could help her hit the top five by the end of the year:

Rest for the Weary Arm: As everyone knows, competing on the clay requires a player to hit a lot more balls. What would be a winner on a faster surface most of the time ends up being a rallying stroke on the dirt.

That's a lot of stress on the joints for any player, especially one recently removed from major shoulder surgery.

Eliminating thousands of balls hit over the period of a few weeks could leave her stronger for the second half of the long tennis season.

Surface Attention: Speaking of the second half of the season, that's when things really start to speed up with the month-long stretch of grass-court tournaments, then the hard-court stretch before players go indoors to wrap up the year.

Sharapova has won multiple titles in those types of conditions, including two Grand Slams.

Few players possess the power to keep up with her on the grass and hard courts, so why not focus on what's best-suited to her game?

Rafter's Arc: Before he won the first of his two U.S. Open titles in 1997, Australian Patrick Rafter's first Grand Slam semifinal came at that year's French, the tournament most challenging to his serve-and-volley game. After his shoulder surgery in 1999, Rafter did make two Wimbledon finals but never got that deep at the French again.

Those two finals, which came on the heels of a drastically reduced clay-court schedule, helped solidify Rafter's Hall-of-Fame status.

Sharapova's pretty much a lock where the HOF is concerned, but adding another Major final or two could erase any doubt—much as it did with Rafter.

The Best Preparation: Since the start of 2010, Sharapova has only managed three top-10 wins, a less-than-impressive stat for a future Hall-of-Famer at this point in their career.

The time she's missed due to injury has allowed a host of players to catch up with and surpass her.

Taking the time during the clay stretch to incorporate new facets into her game could help in her matchups with Caroline Wozniacki, Kim Clijsters, Viktoria Azarenka, etc.

Time Is on Her Side: Sharapova is a couple of weeks shy of her 24th birthday. Despite the fact that she's been on tour since 2001, she's still in her prime years as an athlete and barring injury or burnout, still has at least five good years in front of her.

What's the harm in taking one year off from extra clay-court play when there's still possibly many more years—and Slam victories—in her future?

The Strasbourgs of the world can wait, and there's no time like the present to put them on hold.