The rivalry between Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova was possibly one of the most popular rivalries on the tour for more than a decade. In terms of their off-court relationship, they were not best friends, but they were not enemies either. However, at one point, Williams had to apologize to the Russian tennis star for making a comment on her relationship with Bulgarian tennis star Grigor Dimitrov.

During the 2013 season, their off-court relationship became quite bitter, apparently because a reporter misconstrued Serena’s statement.

Serena Williams once apologized to Maria Sharapova

During the 2013 Wimbledon Championships, all the focus was on Serena regarding the conversation she had with her sister Venus about Sharapova’s then-boyfriend, Grigor Dimitrov. Back then, an article published those private conversations, which irked both Serena and Sharapova.

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Later, Sharapova criticized Serena for making comments about her personal life. However, Serena wanted to clear things up with the Russian star. As a result, she approached the 5-time Grand Slam champion at a player’s party and explained the whole thing to Sharapova.

“I made it a point to reach out to Maria because she was inadvertently brought into the situation by assumptions made by the reporter. I personally talked to Maria at the player party, incidentally. I said, look, I want to personally apologise to you if you are offended by being brought into my situation,” Serena said during an interview. 

“I want to take this moment to just pour myself, be open, say I’m very sorry for this whole situation… I’m the first person to reach out to individuals and people if I feel that something may have hurt them or something may have been misconstrued,” she further said. 

Notably, Sharapova had a relationship with Dimitrov back in 2013, and the couple dated for two years before parting ways.

Serena and Sharapova’s rivalry

Although Serena has a massive head-to-head (20-2) advantage over Sharapova, their rivalry always attracted many fans from all over the world. In 2004, both players met three times and Sharapova won two pivotal matches against her great American rival.

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They met at the Miami Open in 2004 for the very first time, where Serena emerged victorious as she beat Sharapova in straight sets. In the same year, Sharapova achieved possibly her biggest victory, as she beat Serena in the Wimbledon final. Later that year, the Russian again beat the American for the WTA Tour Championships title.

Unfortunately for Sharapova, those two victories were the only victories she had over Serena in her entire career. Their last meeting came in 2019 in the US Open first round when Serena destroyed Sharapova in straight sets. In 2020, Sharapova announced her retirement from professional tennis. Recently, Serena also announced her retirement, as the US Open will be her last tournament.