Despite the fact that Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams have both been at the top of women’s tennis for over a decade, the head-to-head rivalry between the two is embarrassingly lopsided.
Sharapova has beaten Williams just twice in 21 career meetings, and not since the WTA Championships in 2004. Williams has beaten Sharapova 18 consecutive times, including seven times in major tournaments plus once at the Olympics in 2012.
In her new autobiography, Unstoppable: My Life So Far, Sharapova explains what she thinks started the rivalry and Williams’s run of dominance.
The Russian believes the antipathy dates back to the 2004 Wimbledon final, where a 17-year-old Sharapova beat the odds to defeat Williams.
“When the match was over, Serena hugged me,” Sharapova wrote in an excerpt shared by Metro. “She said something like, ‘Good job.’ And smiled. But she could not have been smiling on the inside. What I heard when I came in to the locker room was Serena Williams bawling. Guttural sobs. I got out as quickly as I could, but she knew I was there.
“People often wonder why I have had so much trouble beating Serena; my record against her is 2 and 19. To me, the answer was in this locker room. I think Serena hated me for being the skinny kid who beat her, against all odds, at Wimbledon. But mostly I think she hated me for hearing her cry. Not long after the tournament, I heard Serena told a friend – who then told me – ‘I will never lose to that little b—- again.'”
Things used to be much more personal between Williams and Sharapova, but that has leveled off a bit in recent years, even if Williams’s on-court dominance hasn’t.
