Serena Williams’ dominance over Maria Sharapova is one of the most impressive running streaks in tennis.
With her 6-1, 6-1 victory over Sharapova during the first round of the US Open on Monday night, Williams has now beaten Maria 19 straight times. 19. She leads Sharapova 20-2 head-to-head and has not lost to Maria since 2004.
Serena was asked in an on-court interview after her match for the reason behind her dominance of Sharapova.
“She’s such a good player. When you play her, you have to be super focused. So every time I come up against her, I bring out some of my best tennis,” Williams said.
Then in an interview on ESPN’s set, Serena was pressed further on the matter and offered potentially a better explanation.
“I don’t know. I think because of her height, the ball is in my strike zone a lot of the time. That’s the only thing I can think of. But there are a lot of players who are her height and they’re not necessarily in my strike zone, so maybe it’s just her shot,” said Williams.
Maybe that explains it.
Another big factor in the lopsided results has to be Sharapova’s psyche. The 32-year-old Russian has said in the past that she was bothered by her losing streak to Serena. That was six years ago! At this point her struggles against Williams are probably just as much mental as anything else. If you walk onto a court knowing you’re going to lose, you’re going to lose. That’s probably why Sharapova gets steamrolled so badly by Serena.
