Serena, Sharapova ready to renew bad blood in French Open

PARIS, France – Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova bring their career-long bitter feud to Roland Garros on Monday, June 4, with the bad blood between the sport’s two iconic stars threatening to boil over.

Sharapova has not defeated her fellow former world number one since 2004 – a streak of 18 matches – the same year she made her global breakthrough at Wimbledon as a slender teenager prone to fits of giggles.

The pair’s eagerly-awaited showdown pushed Monday’s other 4th round matches into the shade.

World number one Simona Halep, twice a runner-up, needed less than an hour to make the last-eight in Paris for the 3rd time with a 6-2, 6-1 rout of Belgium’s Elise Mertens.

“I was a little bit stronger in the important moments,” said Halep.

However, Australian Open champion and second seed Caroline Wozniacki was knocked out by Russia’s Daria Kasatkina 7-6 (7/5), 6-3.

The 22nd match of the one-sided Williams-Sharapova rivalry will once again be played out against a familiar soundtrack of suspicion and bickering.

Williams, a triple French Open champion and 23-time major winner, has vented her anger over Sharapova’s claims that she wept after losing the 2004 Wimbledon title match.

The 36-year-old described the references to her in Sharapova’s recent memoir, ‘Unstoppable’, as “100 percent hearsay”.

“I think Serena hated me for being the skinny kid who beat her, against all odds, at Wimbledon,” Sharapova wrote in the autobiography.

“Not long after I heard Serena told a friend, who then told me, ‘I’ll never lose to that little bitch again’.”

Williams is also angry as Sharapova’s claims came just months after the American had hailed her for the manner in which she announced her failed drugs test at the 2016 Australian Open.

“I was one of the few people that said she was brave to say something,” said Williams referring to Sharapova’s “drug incident”.

“I didn’t have anything negative to say about Maria.”

Sharapova’s positive test for meldonium led to a 15-month ban.

Ironically, the Russian’s last match before her suspension was against Williams in the quarterfinals in Melbourne.

Williams has monopolized their on-court clashes for the last 14 years so much so that Sharapova has taken just one set in a decade.

Despite that, the Russian, with five Slams to her name, still brings in the serious money.

‘Black heart’

Her net worth was valued at $285 million by Forbes last year while, according to The Richlist, Williams’s financial assets were estimated at $170 million.

As well as vying for commercial and PR supremacy, the two have fought very public battles over their private lives.

On the eve of Wimbledon in 2013, Williams gave an explosive interview to Rolling Stone magazine in which she left nobody in any doubt as to her target.

“She begins every interview with ‘I’m so happy. I’m so lucky’ – it’s so boring,” said Williams without namechecking the Russian.

“She’s still not going to be invited to the cool parties. And, hey, if she wants to be with the guy with a black heart, go for it.”

The ‘black heart’ was a not so subtle reference to Bulgarian tennis player Grigor Dimitrov, a rumoured former boyfriend of Williams, who was then dating Sharapova.

A few days later, Sharapova aimed a trademark icy riposte at Williams.

“If she wants to talk about something personal, maybe she should talk about her relationship and her boyfriend that was married and is getting a divorce and has kids,” she said in reference to Patrick Mouratoglou, who is still Williams’s coach but was reportedly her boyfriend at the time as well.

Williams, playing her first Slam since winning the 2017 Australian Open and giving birth to daughter Olympia in September, insists Sharapova is favorite to win Monday’s match on Court Philippe Chatrier.

Two-time Paris champion Sharapova, meanwhile, is wary of the enormity of the routs she has suffered.

“I think there is a lot of things in her game that she’s done much better than I have. Numbers don’t lie,” said the 31-year-old.

Meanwhile, Halep will next face either German 12th seed Angelique Kerber or Caroline Garcia, the 7th-seeded Frenchwoman who made the last-eight in 2017.

Kasatkina, who has made the last-eight of a Slam for the first time, faces US Open champion Sloane Stephens.

She claimed her 3rd win of 2018 over Wozniacki, reeling off 3 successive games after the tie had been suspended for darkness at 3-3 in the second set on Sunday, June 3. 

Third seed Garbine Muguruza of Spain, the 2016 champion, faces unseeded Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko who has never got beyond the last-16 at the majors. – Rappler.com