![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/IMG_5419.jpg\")
<\/a>2020.3.03<\/a>: Immediately after Maria Sharapova announced her retirement last week, Serena Williams was trending on Twitter<\/span>.<\/p>\nPerhaps unfairly, hoards of tennis fans chose to remember Sharapova as the woman Serena beat 20 times rather than for any of her achievements.<\/p>\n
Unlike in other sports, when a retirement announcement sees a flood of tweets from former teammates and competitors, Sharapova\u2019s official goodbye didn\u2019t lead to an outpouring of memories on social media, at least not from many of her peers.<\/p>\n
And especially not from Serena.<\/p>\n
Sharapova\u2019s 16-year battle with Serena<\/p>\n
Sharapova and Serena had a very frosty relationship during the 16 years in which they both played on the WTA tour, with Sharapova infamously saying they\u2019d \u2018never be friends\u2019 in 2017.<\/p>\n
When Sharapova won her first grand slam by beating Serena at Wimbledon in 2004, the sport thought it had its new princess and a budding rivalry.<\/p>\n
But that rivalry never materialised, at least not on court.<\/p>\n
Serena and Sharapova met 22 times, and Serena won 20 of those matches – a 90.9 winning percentage for Serena.<\/p>\n
Yet Sharapova has a thinly veiled dislike of Serena, and the feeling is mutual.<\/p>\n
In her 2016 memoir, Sharapova wrote fairly extensively about her opponent, admitting that at the 2002 Wimbledon champions ball her \u201cbody just would not let me\u201d stand to salute that year\u2019s winner, even as the rest of the room welcomed Serena, who had just won the singles title over Venus and the doubles title with Venus, with an ovation.<\/p>\n
Somewhat bizarrely, Serena shows up on the second page of the prologue in Sharapova\u2019s memoir.<\/p>\n
\u201cSerena Williams has marked the heights and limits of my career,\u201d Sharapova wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur stories are intertwined. I approach every match against her with trepidation and respect \u2026 I\u2019ve beaten all the players who have beaten Serena, but it\u2019s been nearly impossible for me to beat Serena herself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why Sharapova thinks Serena hates her<\/p>\n
The first time they played one another, in Miami in 2004, Sharapova described Serena thusly: \u201cHer physical appearance is much stronger and bigger than you realise watching TV. She has thick arms and thick legs and is so intimidating and strong. And tall, really tall.\u201d<\/p>\n
In reality, Sharapova is about five inches taller than Serena, but clearly she had a picture to paint. And it\u2019s not a nice one.<\/p>\n
According to Sharapova, in the locker room after her win against Serena in the 2004 final, Serena collapsed into \u201cguttural, heaving sobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt went on and on. I got out as quickly as I could, but she knew I was there,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople often wonder why I have had so much trouble beating Serena; she\u2019s owned me in the past ten years. My record against her is 2-19.<\/p>\n
Maria Sharapova, pictured here after beating Serena Williams to win Wimbledon in 2004.View photos
\nMaria Sharapova shocked the world by beating Serena Williams to win Wimbledon in 2004. (Photo by Mike Hewitt\/Getty Images)
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\n\u201cIn analysing this, people talk about Serena\u2019s strength, her serve and confidence, how her particular game matches up to my particular game, and, sure there is truth to all of that; but, to me, the real answer was there, in this locker room, where I was changing and she was bawling.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Serena hated me for being the skinny kid who beat her, against all odds, at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut mostly I think she hated me for hearing her cry. She\u2019s never forgiven me for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot long after the tournament, I heard that Serena told a friend, who then told me, \u2018I will never lose to that little b*tch again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u838e\u5a03\u9000\u4f11 \u6ca1\u4eba\u51fa\u58f0
\n\u4e00\u822c\u7403\u5458\u6b63\u5f0f\u544a\u522b\u540e, \u4f1a\u5bfc\u81f4\u793e\u4ea4\u5a92\u4f53\u4e0a\u7684\u8bb0\u5fc6\u6cdb\u6ee5,\u5c24\u5176\u540c\u884c\u4e4b\u95f4. \u4f46\u662f\u838e\u5a03\u975e\u4f46\u6ca1\u6709,\u5c0f\u5a01\u53cd\u800c\u4e0a\u4e86\u70ed\u641c. \u4e8c\u599e\u540c\u4e8b16\u5e74: \u4ea4\u624b22\u6b21, \u838e\u5a03\u8f93\u4e8620\u6b21.
\n\u5979\u7684\u7b2c\u4e8c\u4e2a\u8d62\u6765\u81ea2004\u6e29\u7f51. \u636e\u5979\u81ea\u5df1\u5199 \u201c\u6bd4\u8d5b\u7ed3\u675f\u540e\u4e0d\u4e45, \u5c0f\u5a01\u544a\u8bc9\u4e00\u4e2a\u670b\u53cb, \u90a3\u4e2a\u670b\u53cb\u544a\u8bc9\u6211: “\u5c0f\u5a01\u53d1\u8a93\u4ece\u6b64\u4e0d\u4f1a\u518d\u8f93\u8fc7\u90a3\u4e2a\u5c0f\u5a4a\u5b50\u201d I will never lose to that little b*tch again. \u54c8\u54c8\u54c8 \u5c0f\u5a01\u4fe1\u5b88\u4e86\u81ea\u5df1\u7684\u8bfa\u8a00<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The courts become quieter, which is great \u7f51\u7403\u573a\u4e0a\u5b89\u9759\u4e86\u597d\u591a … \u8c22\u8c22\u9000\u9635 2020.3.03: Immediately after Maria Sharapova announced her retirement last week, Serena Williams was trending on Twitter. Perhaps unfairly, hoards of tennis fans chose to remember Sharapova as the woman Serena beat 20 times rather than for any of her achievements. Unlike in other sports, when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musing","category-tennis-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43252\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}