In Maria Sharapova’s new biography, Unstoppable: My Life So Far, Serena Williams is the dominant character, as it has been in any tennis match between the two over the previous 13 years. In the book, which was released on September 12, Sharapova reveals why she believes she hasn’t beaten Williams since 2004.
“In analyzing this, people talk about Serena’s strength, serve, and confidence, how her particular game matches up to my particular game, and, sure, there is truth to all of that,” Sharapova writes, reliving her 2004 Wimbledon upset against Williams, who was favored to win. “But, to me, the actual answer was right there, in the locker room, where I was changing and she was crying.
I think Serena despised me for being the small kid who defeated her against all odds at Wimbledon.”
Williams appears prominently in Sharapova’s book as well as numerous popular stories about her.
“Serena Williams has marked the heights and the limits of my career — our stories are intertwined,” writes Sharapova. “It was Serena whom I beat in the Wimbledon final to emerge on the international stage at seventeen, and it’s Serena who’s given me the hardest time since.”
However, in terms of Williams’ legacy, Sharapova is a mere footnote. Sharapova defeated Williams once more in November 2004 at the WTA Championships, but has since lost to her 18 times in a row, most recently in 2016.
It would be an exaggeration to label Williams and Sharapova’s relationship a rivalry, as rivalries rarely feature an 18-streak steamroll.
Instead, Sharapova and Williams have a feud.
And it’s a rivalry that has attracted tennis fans and sportswriters even when the women’s games haven’t. It has provided a view into the “real” world of tennis, which exists beyond the sport’s veneer of politeness, handshakes, routine press conferences, and formality. And now, with Sharapova’s memoir, which devotes a significant portion of it to Williams, the world has its first in-depth look at Sharapova’s psychology and her perspective on the greatest women’s tennis player of all time.
Those seeking a juicy view into the animosity that has engulfed women’s tennis for years should be aware that the name “Serena” appears more than 100 times in Sharapova’s book, including nine times in the prologue alone. All signs point to Williams as Sharapova’s personal benchmark, idol, and rival, as well as the standard that defines her career.
The most fascinating aspect of the book, however, may not be the gossip and speculation about Williams that Sharapova engages in, but rather what it exposes about how Sharapova perceives and presents herself as an underdog and a victim. When you compare what Sharapova claims to reality, it’s evident that being paired against Williams has helped her benefit from their spat, which has resulted in lucrative sponsorship deals, magazine spreads, and preferential treatment in professional events. Sharapova often exaggerates Williams’ physical presence and wrath, claiming that the two are the reason she has never beaten Williams again.
While Sharapova’s memoir is intended to provide her perspective on the most well-known conflict in women’s tennis, it also serves as a clear illustration of how the sport has frequently treated the two in opposing and unfair ways.
The feud between Sharapova and Williams grew out of a rivalry that never was
To grasp the gravity of the Sharapova-Williams animosity, keep in mind that at any given time, the game of tennis revolves around a single player. For long seasons in both men’s and women’s tennis, one player has typically emerged as the game’s face. Serena Williams was the player in question between 2002 and 2003, when Sharapova was just starting out.
Williams achieved the “Serena Slam,” a term she coined after winning four consecutive Grand Slam tournaments but not within the same calendar year. The term is a play on the term “Grand Slam,” which refers to a player sweeping the four annual Grand Slam tournaments — the Australian Open in January, the French Open in May, Wimbledon in July, and the US Open in August/September — in a single year.
When a player demonstrates the kind of domination that Williams showed, they tend to change the general narrative of tennis. Sportswriters and fans often extol a player’s dominance and compare them to the greatest players in history. However, they also strive to find the next great player who can challenge and even outperform the current leader.
In 2004, Maria Sharapova was the up-and-coming player at Wimbledon.
Sharapova, then 17, was heralded as the next big thing—a blonde, Siberian-born, Nick Bollettieri-trained ball striker with a peacock-like grunt and the ability to hit as hard as anyone on the women’s tour. Sharapova was seeded 13th, and it appeared that she was still a few years away from her breakout win. But she made it through the draw, coming back from a set down in the semifinals against fifth-seeded American Lindsay Davenport. Williams, who had defeated Sharapova in a Miami tournament earlier that year, was playing Wimbledon while recovering from injury.
Sharapova eventually played Williams in the title, with Sharapova in the zone and Williams appearing rusty after a long layoff; Sharapova came away with a dominant win and a lot of expectations. Sharapova and Williams met again that year at the season-ending WTA Tour Championships, and Sharapova won again.
Since that tournament, Sharapova has been regarded as one of the few players capable of defeating Williams and challenging her brilliance. Many believed that the next great tennis rivalry had come.
Sharapova’s triumph at the WTA Tour Championships in 2004 was her last professional match versus Williams. She went on to win four more Grand Slam titles against different opponents, demonstrating that she is still a highly competent tennis player.
Instead of becoming Williams’ sole formidable adversary, Sharapova became the topic of a different story: Though she could easily beat anyone not named Serena Williams, when the two squared off, some questioned whether she would ever tap into the Wimbledon magic she had in 2004. That’s one of the main reasons people are interested in her memoir: they want to read Sharapova’s perspective on 13 years of losing to Williams and whether she believes she can beat Williams again.
Leave a Reply