The last time Maria Sharapova hit Montreal, she was a 17-year-old ingenue who had just shocked the tennis world by winning Wimbledon.

She entered the 2004 Rogers Cup at the last minute as a wild card, won her first match, then fell to compatriot Vera Zvonareva on a chilly August night.

Here's how long ago that was in tennis terms: on the same day, Jennifer Capriati defeated Mary Pierce.

Sharapova hasn't been back since - in Montreal or Toronto. But this year might be the year.

Maria's hardcourt season this year will be three tournaments: Montreal, Olympics and US Open.  Montreal will begin on July 28th, Olympics on August 10th and US Open on August 25th.

The Rogers Cup in Montreal is a tier 1 event and Maria has played this event twice before and her best result was reaching the 3rd round in 2004.

Maria will then fly all the way to Beijing, China to make her debut in the Olympics.  The tennis event will begin on August 10th.  This is Maria's 1st appearance in the 4 yearly event.

Maria Sharapova has decided not to compete on grass before Wimbledon for the first time in her career, opting out of playing her usual warmup tournament in England.

Sharapova is hoping to avoid any injury concerns and will prepare at her home in Florida rather than compete in the DFS Classic that starts Monday in Birmingham. Sharapova has been a mainstay at the tournament for the last five years, winning it twice -- including in 2004 when she went on to win Wimbledon.

She is also foregoing another grass-court warmup at Eastbourne the following week, choosing instead to copy the Williams sisters' tournament-free, pre-Wimbledon schedule.

Maria Sharapova's short stay atop the rankings will end after the French Open.

Sharapova moved up from No. 2 when Justine Henin suddenly retired last month. After losing in the fourth round at Roland Garros, Sharapova will drop back down and there will be a new No. 1 -- current No. 2 Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, No. 3 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia or No. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia.

None of those three ever has won the French Open or been ranked No. 1.

Maria is out of Roland Garros after she lost 7-6 6-7 2-6 to #13 seed Dinara Safina of Russia in the 4th round in 2 hours and 52 minutes.

The 1st set took 68 minutes as both players didn't give much away.  There were no breaks in the first 6 games and then in the 7th game Maria broke Safina's serve when she hit a winner after a long rally.  Safina didn't give Maria much time to get comfortable as she broke Maria back in the next game.  The next 4 games were hold of serve and a tie-break would decide this set.  The tie-break was close and Safina had 2 set-points but Maria managed to take it 8-6 when Safina hit a shot just out.