The retired American tennis star, Serena Williams, was relatively unchallenged by any of her so-called ‘rivals’ in her glorious career. Her record speaks for itself. While there were other great players like Maria Sharapova and her elder sister, Venus Williams, in the same era, Serena absolutely dominated the WTA Tour. When it came to facing the Russian star, there were various reasons for Serena’s head-to-head dominance. However, the Russian tennis legend opened up, in her 2017 memoir, that her rival’s strong and confident personality, with a muscular build, played a very important role.

Sharapova on the difficulty of facing Serena Williams

When you face a legendary player who has already a big name in the tennis realm, the pressure of flawlessly executing your tactic is always there. In the case of Serena Williams, Sharapova felt that, adding to that pressure, the way Serena looked also played an important role in discouraging her opponents.

Recalling her gold medal match against Serena in the 2012 London Olympics, Sharapova wrote in her autobiography ‘Unstoppable: My Life So Far’, “First of all, her physical presence is much stronger and bigger than you realize watching TV. She has thick arms and thick legs and is so intimidating and strong. And tall, really tall. I looked across the net, and, no way to get around it, she was just there! More there than other players, if that makes sense.”

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Sharapova further added, “It’s the whole thing—her presence, her confidence, her personality. She seemed much older than me in Miami. This was just before I turned seventeen. She was a grown woman, experienced, the best player in the world. It still feels that way. Even now, she can make me feel like a little girl.”

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While it is hard to judge if Sharapova meant it in a positive or negative sense, Serena didn’t like the way Sharapova wrote about her.

Serena took an indirect dig at Sharapova for her comments

Serena Williams was not happy with the way Sharapova described her appearance in her book. The 23-time Grand Slam champion always believed that she has worked hard for her success and the way Sharapova boiled it down to her physical advantage, Serena was not happy at all.

As a reaction to her archrival’s views, Serena wrote an open letter to her mother, Oracene Price, explaining to her how she is scared for her daughter Olympia. The reason she mentioned this was that the little one has similar physical features as her. Serena further took a dig at Sharapova by saying that she never took any drug to gain an unfair advantage. Notably, Sharapova served a 15-month ban after testing positive for a banned substance.

Watch this story: 70 Million Worth ‘Tech Titan’ Alexis Ohanian’s Clever Move to Keep in Touch With Serena Williams Makes Them the Perfect Couple

Although the two top tennis players of the modern generation didn’t have great chemistry, they have now made it up to each other and are trying to be friends off the court.