The rivalry that is yet to happen: Sharapova and Serena

The Sharapova-Serena rivalry is making the news charts with Sharapova’s yet another defeat against Serena. She hasn’t been able to defeat the American since US Open 2004, and has been aiming to do the same since a long time now.

One of the most famous rivalries of recent times would be the Fedal rivalry, wherein Nadal was on a long winning streak against Federer, but here, the rivalry has not been totally one-sided, as is the case with Masha and Serena. She is facing a situation which even Federer did not anticipate during his murkiest phases with Rafa. Federer could say that Rafa’s ‘extreme dominance’ was limited to clay courts, but for Sharapova, it hasn’t been easy for her to put up with Serena’s skills on any surface. Another point to be mentioned is that keeping aside the seven month long injury, Nadal’s reputation in the tennis world has been the one who is unbeatable on clay.

While in case of Sharapova and Serena, the latter hadn’t won a tournament on clay since 2002 whereas Sharapova’s 17 match streak on clay was brought to an end in the Madrid Masters finals.

Much was being predicted before this great final between the World no.1 and World no.2, considering the Russian’s great form, but the match turned out to be a one-sided dull affair. Serena’s 28-1 record on clay, since 2010, was also being talked about.

Talking about advantages, Sharapova has an upper hand in matters of age . While she is just 26 years old while the American player is 31, but still has the potential to win any tournament on any surface.

After the Madrid Masters’13 final, Serena said, “Who knows if I’ll ever win another title? I just want to live in the moment and the dream every chance I get.”

Serena and Sharapova may clash yet again in Rome Masters. It can be said that Sharapova does stand a fair chance of dismissing the 2-13 head to head statistics that she has against Serena, but it would be really challenging for the Russian player pertaining to the history she has with Serena.

There are two categories of differences in any rivalry – sensitive and technical.

While in the sensitive part of it, Sharapova has displayed fear and the feeling of being inferior while Serena, most of the time, plays all her shots with all her confidence and buoyancy.

The technical differences between them can be accredited to the experience factor. Experts say that Sharapova is rather erratic on the service line, and on the other hand, Serena is known for a good return of serve. Also, Serena is always known to have the best serve ever in women’s tennis. The strength is her arm shows in all her serves. So Masha does not really have an upper hand when it comes to services.

Masha’s fans will hope to see their player Serena one last time at least before the veteran American decides to retire.