GRUDGE MATCH
Serena and Sharapova have clashed over sex, money and drugs, so no wonder today’s showdown is such a...
FrOM the dozens of mentions Serena Williams gets in Maria Sharapova’s autobiography, one theme that emerges is of the russian positioning herself as the underdog.
It is her contention Williams has never forgiven her for the shock defeat she inflicted on her in the 2004 Wimbledon final, after which she heard the American sobbing in the locker room.
Sharapova refers to how physically imposing her so-called rival is, with her ‘thick arms and thick legs’, and how tall she is. That reference is especially strange, because Sharapova is five inches taller.
Both players seek to cast themselves as the outsider for today’s emotionally charged fourth-round match at the French Open, the first time they have met since the 2016 Australian Open.
Sharapova can point to 18 straight defeats at the American’s hands, while on Saturday night Williams emphasised she is only in the foothills of her comeback after giving birth in September.
To say this match has undercurrents barely covers it. It is a case of standing amid white-water rapids, foaming with long-standing jealousies and antagonism, aside from the crushingly one-sided history they share on the court.
The feud probably reached its zenith in the build-up to Wimbledon 2013, when their competitiveness spilled over into barbs over the Bulgarian heart-throb player Grigor Dimitrov, with whom both had been romantically linked. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Williams made apparent reference to Sharapova’s liaison with the same player: ‘If she wants to be with a guy with a black heart, go for it.’
On the eve of Wimbledon, before the world’s media, Sharapova responded in devastating fashion, making reference to the American having an affair with her coach Patrick Mouratoglou.
‘If she wants to talk about something personal, maybe she should talk about her relationship and her boyfriend who was married and is getting a divorce and has kids,’ she said.
Mouratoglou, with whom there is now a purely professional coaching relationship, will be in Williams’s team this afternoon.
But there is more to their antipathy than that. Those who have been close to Serena over the years will tell you that part of her turbo-charged motivation when playing Sharapova is fuelled by commercial concerns.
It has always irked Williams that blue-chip sponsors have beaten a path to the door of the beautiful blonde, while showing less enthusiasm to get involved with her, the greatest female player ever.
Most sponsors even stood by Sharapova during the 15-month ban that followed her positive test for meldonium in Melbourne two and a half years ago.
In her pointed press conference on Saturday, Williams made reference twice to her opponent’s drug-taking. She could have added that when they last met, in the last eight of that tournament, she was pregnant while her opponent was fortified by an illegal substance.
While Sharapova was on her enforced break, she collaborated on her book
Unstoppable, which was published last September and has stirred the pot for today’s collision.
It details the privations of her arrival in America as a child and goes a long way to explaining why she has been so driven in the pursuit of sporting and material success. And while obsessing over Williams, it is far from entirely negative about her, even speculating they might end up as friends after the days — probably not too distant — of fierce competition are over.
For now, however, neither is going to give the other any quarter in one of the most eagerly anticipated Grand Slam matches in years, elevating the women’s event above another expected coronation for rafael Nadal on the men’s side.
One of the most fascinating aspects of Sharapova and Williams is how they try to impose themselves on court, intimidating opponents with their body language and shrieking with every ball strike.
That is why the one thing you can be sure about today is that the volume on Court Philippe Chatrier will be so loud that it may disturb the peace across the Peripherique in the Bois de Boulogne.
In the past, Williams would naturally be the favourite. Her big serve counteracts the aggressive returning skills of Sharapova and the penetration of Serena’s groundstrokes exposes the russian’s less-than-silky movement.
But Sharapova’s form has been on a sharply upward trajectory since a poor start to the season, and reuniting with former coach Thomas Hogstedt looks to have paid a swift dividend. Her dropshots could do damage, although Williams’s agility looked much closer to its sharpest in her third-round defeat of Julia Gorges.
For Williams, who lost playing in the doubles yesterday with sister Venus, this will be only her eighth singles match in nearly 18 months. Sharapova must surely feel that if she is going to add to those two victories in 2004, when she was just a ‘skinny kid’, then now is the time to strike.