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Serena, Sharapova ready to renew bad blood in Paris
PARIS, June 4, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova bring
their career-long bitter feud to Roland Garros on Monday with the bad blood
between the sport’s two iconic stars threatening to boil over.
Sharapova has not defeated her fellow former world number one since 2004 —
a streak of 18 matches — the same year she made her global breakthrough at
Wimbledon as a slender teenager prone to fits of giggles.
The 22nd match of their one-sided rivalry will once again be played out
against a familiar soundtrack of suspicion and public bickering.
Williams, the three-time French Open champion and 23-time major winner, has
vented her anger at Sharapova’s claims that she wept after losing the 2004
Wimbledon title match.
The 36-year-old described references to her in Sharapova’s memoir,
‘Unstoppable’, as “100 percent hearsay”.
Williams is furious that Sharapova went public with events from behind
closed doors at the All England Club.
“I think Serena hated me for being the skinny kid who beat her, against all
odds, at Wimbledon,” Sharapova wrote.
“Not long after I heard Serena told a friend, who then told me, ‘I’ll never
lose to that little bitch again’.”
Williams is also angry as Sharapova’s claims came just months after the
American had hailed her for the manner in which she announced her failed
drugs test at the 2016 Australian Open.
“I was one of the few people that said she was brave to say something,”
said Williams referring to Sharapova’s “drug incident”.
“I didn’t have anything negative to say about Maria.”
Sharapova’s test for meldonium led to a 15-month ban.
Ironically, the Russian’s last match before her suspension was against
Williams in the quarter-finals in Melbourne.
Williams has monopolised their on-court clashes for the last 14 years so
much so that Sharapova has taken just one set in a decade.
Despite that, the Russian, with five Slams to her name, still brings in the
serious money.
– ‘Black heart’ –
Her net worth was valued at $285 million by Forbes last year while,
according to The Richlist, Williams’s financial assets were estimated at $170
million.
As well as vying for commercial and PR supremacy, the two have fought very
public battles over their private lives.
On the eve of Wimbledon in 2013, Williams gave an explosive interview to
Rolling Stone magazine in which she left nobody in any doubt as to her
target.
“She begins every interview with ‘I’m so happy. I’m so lucky’ – it’s so
boring,” said Williams without namechecking the Russian.
“She’s still not going to be invited to the cool parties. And, hey, if she
wants to be with the guy with a black heart, go for it.”
The ‘black heart’ was a not so subtle reference to Bulgarian tennis player
Grigor Dimitrov, a rumoured former boyfriend of Williams, who was then dating
Sharapova.
A few days later, Sharapova aimed a trademark icy riposte at Williams.
“If she wants to talk about something personal, maybe she should talk about
her relationship and her boyfriend that was married and is getting a divorce
and has kids,” she said in reference to Patrick Mouratoglou, who is still
Williams’s coach but was reportedly her boyfriend at the time as well.
Williams, playing her first Slam since winning the 2017 Australian Open and
giving birth to daughter Olympia in September, insists Sharapova is favourite
to win Monday’s match on Court Philippe Chatrier.
Two-time Paris champion Sharapova, meanwhile, is wary of the enormity of
the routs she has suffered.
“I think there is a lot of things in her game that she’s done much better
than I have. Numbers don’t lie,” said the 31-year-old.
Meanwhile, world number one Simona Halep, the runner-up in 2014 and 2017,
tackles Belgian 16th seed Elise Mertens for a place in the last-eight.
Mertens is on a 16-1 red clay run this year. However, her only loss was to
Halep in Madrid where she pocketed just three games.
The winner of that clash will take on either German 12th seed Angelique
Kerber or Caroline Garcia, the seventh-seeded Frenchwoman who made the last-
eight in 2017.
Third seed Garbine Muguruza of Spain, the 2016 champion, faces unseeded
Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko who has never got beyond the last-16 at the majors.
BSS/AFP/MRI/1616 hrs