Like Sharapova and Serena Williams became bitter rivals – RBC

Chronicle in semi confrontation between the two major tennis players of modern times

The rivalry Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova – one of the most amazing stories of modern tennis. On the one hand, sporting excellence Williams – 18-2 on personal meetings – so large that seriously talk about competition once , even embarrassing. Serena dominates Mary more than a decade, and its series of 17 consecutive victories – the largest among the existing tennis players of both sexes.

But the pair of defeats that Sharapova is still dealt Serena played her personal legend, such a role, what never dreamed either Martina Hingis Justine Henin beat Williams for two dozen times or even Serena’s sister Venus, beat her more often than anyone else. The victory of 17-year-old Sharapova at Wimbledon 2004 suddenly turned it into a global icon of show business, and even 17 defeats by Serena after a ( not to mention the four won the “helmet” and three dozen other titles), it remains the most popular and highest paid sportswoman of the world.

It turns out that the athlete is the face of the global industry, is not the best, even in his own sport. Add to this paradox championship characters, smart and sharp summary of both languages, multiply by the intersection of romantic interest – and get hardcore confrontation in which two legends each time fighting for life and death, because everyone believes that is worth more. 21 th episode of which we will see tomorrow.

Wrestling

In the first meeting Serena and Maria spring 2004 still was nothing personal: Sharapova was 16, and she still was not in the top 20, and Williams, six-time champion of the “helmet”, played the first tournament after a long break and was sverhmotivirovannym. She won.

Half a year later the tennis players met in the final of Wimbledon – Sharapova won his most famous victory, but it also has not been burdened with hidden meanings: the tennis players and their difficult fathers were together quite friendly.

In the last match of the season, Sharapova defeated Serena again in a dramatic meeting, during which the traumatized American missed the advantage of 4: 1 in the final set. After a couple of months in the semifinals Australian Open Williams was one ochke third defeat, but pulled out a victory ( 2: 6, 7: 5, 8: 6). In this struggle in the confrontation in the general , over – never Serena did not let Mary so close.

Six months later, Sharapova for the first time became the highest paid female athlete of the planet, over the next three I visited the first racket of the world and won two “Slam.” Williams has exchanged zero until the end of the second decade, “helmet”, in one of the finals giving Sharapova three games. By the time in 2008, Maria went on indefinite leave of a shoulder injury, her balance against Serena was unimportant, but still quite decent – 2-5.

The smiles at the camera

In the new decade, is the advantage of Williams over Sharapova on the court continued to grow gradually, beyond the apparent tension between the still was observed – on the contrary, they posed together for social events:

… and tournament locker ( of Facebook Sharapova):

beaten Sharapova in the summer of 2011 at Stanford ( 2-7), Williams has even led her to court applause. It is clear that the deliberate benevolence did not talked about the warm feelings of tennis to each other, but did not promise it, and the cat fights that ensued later – shortly after winning Serena over Maria in the final of the Olympics ( 6: 0, 6: 1) and the final tournament of 2012 ( 6: 4, 6: 3).

War

The first obvious taunt allowed herself Sharapova – during the Australian Open-2013, she quipped in response to photograph the swollen ankle that Williams post it on the following day after a surprise defeat in the quarter-finals:

«Wait a bit – tennis players will soon spread X-rays, MRI and ultrasounds. * sigh * ».

Ironically, over the next four months, Maria lost to Serena four ( 2 -14) – so often throughout his confrontation are not met, it seems, never. At the same time, Sharapova went on a radical step – hired a consultant who had to analyze it matches with Williams and prepare an action plan. The plan did not work, so after the final «Roland Garros» ( 4: 6, 4: 6) was only polite to joke about his French possession:

After a couple of weeks, all the masks, however, were thwarted completely and broke the loudest skirmish tennis divas: Serena in an interview with Rolling Stone named Mary bore, “which would not be invited to the cool parties,” and it then ( your ex) boyfriend Grigor Dimitrov – Man “with a black heart.” Sharapova in response, did not shy and offered her to look at her boyfriend trainer Patrick Muratoglu that for her threw his wife and children. Later it turned out that Serena day before brought Mary personal apology, but that did not stop Sharapova from being able to apply the public backlash.

After this incident, tennis ceased to comply with even the appearance of friendliness, so last spring Sophia Tartakova, then occupied the post of press officer of Russian Tennis Federation, said in an interview Sports.ru:

«Agent Sharapova said Serena hates Masha. Just hate. When she goes out to play against it, for it is a very different matches. She is ready to destroy it just because the other half of the court Sharapova. So it is important for her ».

In summer, the flames poured Muratoglu when directly called Sharapova is not such a good tennis player, what it after losing to Serena in the semifinals,” Wimbledon » ( 2-18) passive-aggressive response “I do not think he ever tell me one good word».

Over the past six months on the court tennis tournament has not yet met – only a makeshift. At the end of the summer before the US Open, they both took part in the pompous corporate parties Nike, where Serena was photographed with everyone except Mary, and in the evening said:

«We had a great get-together Nike, there were all Roger, Rafa, Pete, Andre … All young too: Madison, Jeanie, I … Gregory, Nick … There were so many people that all can not remember ».

Needless to say, that” forgotten “was only one person.

Photo: Getty Images, facebook.com/Sharapova ( 7).