For a brief moment on Monday night under the lights of Arthur Ashe Stadium, it looked as if the long-hyped but overdramatized Serena Williams–Maria Sharapova rivalry might actually live up to expectations.
The two met midcourt before the match, joined by Billie Jean King, for a ceremonial photograph. Separated by the net and King and a young fan, the opponents barely glanced in one another’s direction. Williams walked away before everyone’s smiles had a chance to fade. The tension was palpable. Capacity crowd seemed to react to every point — oohing and ahhing just about every time the players’ rackets connected with the ball. Williams, dressed in a skintight black body suit that made her look like a superhero, took the first game. Sharapova took the second.
It was six minutes of competitive tennis. But it wouldn’t last. Williams surged over the next 18 minutes and took the next five games for the set
Sharapova’s trademark grunt got louder and more pronounced, but she had no answers for Williams’ power. Sharapova looked dazed at times and stared at her racket in disbelief.
The second set wasn’t much different. Williams took the match 6-1, 6-1 in just under an hour of play.
When asked afterward if she considered Sharapova a rival, Williams hesitated briefly before answering in perhaps the most gracious way she could.
“I don’t know what the meaning of ‘rivalry’ is,” she said. “I feel everyone I play is a rival. Whether I’m 20-2 or 0-1, it’s always interesting.”
In reality, this is a rivalry in name only. Williams now owns a 20-2 career record over Sharapova and has won the past 19 meetings. It’s the longest active win streak on the WTA Tour. Sharapova hasn’t beaten Williams since November 2004, when Usher and Alicia Keys ruled the charts with “My Boo” and “The Incredibles” (the first one) was the top movie in America. Coco Gauff was just an infant.
And yet, this meeting felt far more significant than that lifetime record would indicate.
“They carry themselves like fierce rivals, as if it’s much closer than it really is,” said 21-time Grand Slam doubles champion and current ESPN analyst Pam Shriver. “This matchup interests more than just tennis fans; it transcends the sport and is very much part of pop culture. The average person doesn’t know just how one-sided it is. They just know these are two of the most famous names in tennis, in terms of commercial success and making news off the court.”
Naomi Osaka, the defending champion and world No. 1, summed it up best during her news conference on Saturday before play began.
“Of course I’m going to watch it,” she said. “I know you all are going to watch it. I think everyone in New York is going to watch it.”
The rivalry began in 2004, when Sharapova, now 32, beat Williams in the Wimbledon final. The victory catapulted Sharapova into the sport’s elite — and, as she speculates in her 2017 book “Unstoppable: My Life So Far,” into Williams’ bad graces.
“To me, the real answer was there, in this locker room, where I was changing and she was bawling,” she wrote. “I think Serena hated me for being the skinny kid who beat her, against all odds, at Wimbledon.”
Shriver believes Sharapova’s win at the All England Club is something Williams, 37, has never forgotten. It was the first time she had lost to anyone other than her sister Venus in a Grand Slam final, and at 6-1, 6-4, it wasn’t close.
“The loss at Wimbledon kind of shook Serena,” Shriver said. “Ever since then, she has been on high alert, since the very first point, whenever she plays her. She always means business when it comes to revenge, but it might be a little bit more against Sharapova because of that. Not to mention, there’s not exactly any love lost between them off the court, either.”
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