One of the most anticipated matches at Roland Garros this season has been called off. It came across as a shocker to all the tennis fans worldwide as Serena Williams pulled out of the championship moments before her pre-quarterfinal round with none other than her long-term arch rival Maria Sharapova.
At the press conference, the tennis wizard had highlighted a pec muscle injury which kept getting from bad to worse. She stated that the injury had gotten so bad that she could barely serve. However, she won in her singles against Goerges, and the pain was not as severe then. Subsequently, she played the doubles match pairing up with her sister Venus which they had lost. Serena stated in her press conference that she tried several permutation combinations on the court, but it didn’t help. She also expressed her disappointment for having to miss the match with Maria Sharapova.
However, moments after her walkover there were speculations regarding their rivalry off the field with respect to Sharapova’s remarks in her autobiography “Unstoppable”. Maria in her excerpt had stated that for Serena to lose in the 2004 Wimbledon Championship was highly consequential.
Williams had been the defending Wimbledon Champion since 2002. This was her third year into the Wimbledon finals, and she had a lot at stake coming into the game and defending her title than giving it away to a seventeen-year-old lanky Russian girl, Maria Sharapova. For Maria, it was her first grand slam singles final at an impressionable age of just seventeen. Still, an adolescent brought to play at the centre court against the all aggressive and confident Serena Williams.
It proved to be Sharapova’s day, and she stunned the world by smashing Serena 6-1, 6-4. Much was talked about her seeing Serena sobbing in the locker room and the fact that Serena was caught off guard at that sensitive moment, a feeling of resentment grew between both these tennis stalwarts.
Later on, Serena had told a common friend that she would not lose to that b***h again, referring to Sharapova, which she mentioned in her book. During the post walkover press conference, Serena rubbished the content of Maria’s autobiography calling it hearsay.
Maria has hit back sharply over Serena’s “hearsay” comment insisting that the controversial references were indeed facts and accurate ones. “When you’re writing an autobiography, I don’t think there is any reason to write anything that’s not true,” retorted the Russian tennis star.
However, Maria exited the French Open Championships after being defeated in her quarterfinal match against Gabrine Muguruza of Spain.
