Maria Sharapova’s comeback has been pretty bumpy, to say the least. In early 2016, Sharapova was suspended for testing positive for a banned substance, a Russian over-the-counter heart medication called meldonium. Sharapova had been taking it for years, but meldonium had only been added to the banned-substance list in 2016. Long story short, she was banned for about Fourteen months and was set to make her triumphant return in April, for the clay season. Ever since, Maria has only won a handful of matches, and she’s retired – citing injury – several times. She also withdrew from Wimbledon, she withdrew from Cincinnati, and it’s believed that she’s will try to make a big splash at the US Open (ten bucks says she ends up retiring in the first or second round though).
This was not how it was supposed to go for Maria, especially with her main rival/nemesis Serena Williams on maternity leave. You can tell that Maria’s team thought she would be in the midst of a massive comeback tour on clay, grass and hard courts. That’s why Maria and her team have scheduled so much other stuff around Maria’s “comeback,” including the publication of her memoir, Unstoppable: My Life So Far, which will be released in September following the US Open. Excerpts from the memoir are already coming out, and wouldn’t you know? Maria addresses her rivalry with Serena. Maria believes (correctly) that Serena vowed to never lose to Maria again after Maria beat Serena at Wimbledon in 2004. Maria also claims that Serena called her a “little bitch.”
Maria Sharapova has lifted the lid on her long-running feud with Serena Williams in a sensational extract from her upcoming autobiography, even suggesting that she helped motivate her to become the greatest female tennis player of all time. In the extract, Sharapova recounts her first meeting with Williams at the age of 17 when she shocked the world to win the Wimbledon title. Afterwards, the now 30-year-old claims she witnessed Williams crying in the locker room, a scene that she believes motivated the American to reach new heights and never lose like that again, even calling Sharapova a ‘b****’ for good measure. As revealed by People Magazine, she wrote: ‘Serena and I should be friends; we have the same passion. But we are not. I think, to some extent, we have driven each other. Maybe that’s what it takes. Only when you have that intense antagonism can you find the strength to finish her off. Who knows? Someday, when all this is in our past, maybe we’ll become friends. When the match was over, Serena hugged me. She said something like, “Good job”. And smiled. But she could not have been smiling on the inside. What I heard when I came in to the locker room was Serena Williams bawling. Guttural sobs. I got out as quickly as I could, but she knew I was there.’ ‘People often wonder why I have had so much trouble beating Serena; my record against her is 2 and 19. To me, the answer was in this locker room. I think Serena hated me for being the skinny kid who beat her, against all odds, at Wimbledon. But mostly I think she hated me for hearing her cry. Not long after the tournament, I heard Serena told a friend – who then told me – “I will never lose to that little b**** again”.’ Williams, now 35, went on to win 17 more Grand Slams after that Wimbledon loss, taking her total to 23 – the most wins by a tennis player in the Open Era – while Sharapova won just four more Grand Slams in the proceeding years.
[From Metro]
There’s a lot to unpack there. I take issue with the fact that Maria casts herself as the “skinny kid” underdog who knew too much about Serena’s sadness. Like, Serena hates to lose. Everyone knows this. She always hates to lose. She cries after she loses. The fact that Maria heard Serena cry? Many players have heard Serena cry, just as millions of people have seen Serena scream and lose her temper and carry all of her emotions on her sleeve. Sure, I could see why Serena would have made a vow to herself that day that she would never again lose to Maria. But that says more about Serena than Maria, and it’s a story for Serena’s memoir, not Maria’s, you know? Maria’s memoir should be called Stoppable: How I Lost to Serena 19 Times. As for Serena calling Maria a “little bitch.” I believe it and I laughed. Good luck in Flushing Meadows, Maria!