Another devastating first-round loss in the 2020 Australian Open on Tuesday prompted the question: Has the tennis world seen the last of Maria Sharapova?

“I don’t know, I was fortunate to get myself to be here, and thankfully to [tournament director] Craig [Tiley] and the team allowing me to be part of this event,” said Sharapova, who was given a wild card but has now failed to advance past the first round in three consecutive Grand Slam events.

“It’s tough for me to tell what’s going to happen in 12 months’ time.”

As a five-time Grand Slam winner, Sharapova is granted unlimited wild-card entries, as long as the tournaments keep deeming her worthy of one. Her ranking is expected to fall to a career-low No. 366 after Tuesday’s 6-3, 6-4 loss to the 19th-seed Donna Vekić.

“I don’t know if I can look at the ranking and really think about it in-depth just because I really haven’t played and I was injured most of the year,” Sharapova said in her post-match press conference. “I certainly have to take that into account. I put myself out there. As tough as it was, I finished the match and it wasn’t the way that I wanted.”

Sharapova, 32, quickly fell behind 5-1 and ceded the first set. It looked like a second-set comeback was in store after she jumped ahead 4-1, but a slew of unforced errors ultimately proved costly and she dropped the final five games of the match.

“She’s still hitting it as hard as I can remember,” Vekić, 23, said of Sharapova after the match.

Her string of recent losses have cast uncertainty on her future in the sport.

“It’s tough to say I’m on the right track right now 45 minutes after the match,” Sharapova said. “But there is no way to get out of it except to keep believing in yourself, because if you do all the right things and you don’t believe in yourself, then that’s probably a bad formula.”

The Russian tennis star captured her first Grand Slam title in 2004. At 17 years old, the young sensation defeated Serena Williams and ascended to No. 1 status. Since then, she has won two French Open titles, one Australian Open title, one US Open title and a silver medal in women’s singles at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

Sharapova’s fall from grace began when she failed a drug test at the 2016 Australian Open. She tested positive for meldonium, a substance which had been banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency earlier in the year. She was reinstated after serving 15 months of her 24 month-suspension.

Since her return to play in April 2017, Sharapova has failed to achieve any semblance of her prior dominance. Her best Grand Slam campaign since her return ended when she was defeated by Garbine Muguruza in the 2018 French Open quarterfinals. A lingering shoulder injury forced her to withdraw from the 2019 French Open, and she retired in the first round of Wimbledon due to a forearm injury.

At the US Open in August, Sharapova was steamrolled by Serena Williams in a much-hyped first-round matchup that ended 6-1, 6-1.

When asked if she would like to play on the tour down the road, Sharapova seemed unsure, acknowledging her body’s limitations.

“I haven’t thought of my schedule moving forward from here yet,” she said. “I would like to. I don’t know, you know, I don’t have a crystal ball to tell you if I can or if I will, but I would love to, yeah.

“As far as the work that I did, yeah, I did all the right things. I put in all the right work. There is no guarantee that even when you do all of those things, that you’re guaranteed victory in a first round or in the third round or in the final. That’s the name of this game. That’s why it’s so special to be a champion, even for one time.”

Vekić advances to the second round against unseeded Alizé Cornet of France, which will be played Wednesday in Melbourne.