The field may remain wide open on the WTA, but there has been a shift in focus regarding which players are now in the spotlight as the tennis world gears up for the year's last major.  Though illness and injury hampered both women from making a splash in Stanford, all eyes are increasingly looking towards Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova to see if they can sink their teeth into the back half of this season to propel themselves on to greater things come 2018.  Certainly, the return of these titans adds intrigue to the mix, and it might just have a positive effect on others in the field.

A woman who may be grateful to see Azarenka and Sharapova return is Angelique Kerber.  The German's struggles throughout 2017 have been discussed in length, and the primary explanation for them has been her inability to cope with the increased weight of expectations.  She has perhaps been the victim of extra scrutiny in the absence of so many of the big stars this year.  There was a hunger to have a reliable pillar regularly making the business-end of tournaments, and as one of the women who have been ranked world no.1 a large portion of this season, that responsibility fell heavily on her shoulders.  She may have also been placing pressure on herself to not only replicate her success of last season, but to take advantage of the fact that her most dangerous rivals were on the sidelines.

Unfortunately, not every player comfortably wears the mark of being the hunted and much prefers to be the hunter.  Kerber has steadily looked like the latter.  She has a nice game, and she has grown into a crafty and phenomenal competitor.  She has illustrated that she can defeat the sport's best to take her place alongside them.  But she is at her own best when she is flying more under the radar and able to swing away freely.  So, while she will undoubtedly be conscious of the fact that a few more roadblocks have potentially been thrown into her path, she is apt to appreciate that some of the pressure and expectation will be shifting to Azarenka and Sharapova instead of lying so greatly on her.

To a lesser degree, it should also be interesting to see what impact the return of Azarenka and Sharapova has on Simona Halep.  To be fair, ever since the clay swing, the Romanian has done an admirable job of doing her part to help fill the void at the top, including reaching the final of Roland Garros for the second time in her career.  In fact, she has been so successful that she leads the race to Singapore and suddenly has more than a few pundits pondering her odds of finishing Number 1.  Like Kerber, however, Halep, at least when it comes to the latter rounds, tends to play better when she is the underdog rather than the favorite.  That said, injecting Azarenka and Sharapova back into the game is more problematic for the current Number 2.  Though she has often proved excellent at consistently hugging the baseline, taking the ball early, and moving the ball around the court, her smaller stature does leave her more vulnerable to the power hitters.  As such, she has to guard against the pitfall of pressing to take advantage of this window where Azarenka and Sharapova are still searching for their top form less she sees her own form take a dive.

All told, this is evolving into a really interesting time in women's tennis.  There is ample intrigue surrounding the continued comeback of some of the sport's greatest competitors, and the ripple effect it is bound to have on the rest of the field should be equally entertaining.  Only time will tell how things are going to pan out in the months to come, but a case could be made that fans are not the only ones who may have something to gain with Azarenka and Sharapova back in the mix.