Sharapova: “Serena Hated Me For Being The Skinny Kid Who Beat Her”

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Though US tennis champion Serena Williams has always maintained she has ‘no negative feelings’ about one of her eternal rivals on the court, Russian Maria Sharapova, the competitiveness between the two has from time to time taken on the allure of a true catfight.

Maria, tall, white, skinny and blond versus Serena, muscular and African-American has always had an appeal of the eternal fight between good and bad for some of the tennis observers. With the two set for a matchup tomorrow at the French Open again, it was clear which kind of questions they were both gonna get at the interviews today.

Sharapova recently released an autobiography which Serena Williams described at ‘100% hearsay’ when it comes to the locker room incidents that ‘supposedly’ happened between the two.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sharapova in DOMINANT fashion!<br><br>No. 28 Maria Sharapova beats No. 6 Karolina Pliskova 6-2, 6-1 in just 59 minutes to reach the fourth round at Roland Garros. <br><br>Up next: a possible matchup with…Serena Williams. <a href="https://t.co/EIHx8OmWjJ">pic.twitter.com/EIHx8OmWjJ</a></p>&mdash; SI Tennis (@SI_Tennis) <a href="https://twitter.com/SI_Tennis/status/1002889370012143617?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 2, 2018</a></blockquote>

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Although Sharapova has only beaten Williams twice, back in 2004, she believes that victory in Wimbledon was the absolute catalyst for their rivalry.

Maria Sharapova, in her autobiography 'Unstoppable: My Life So Far', stated: "I think Serena hated me for being the skinny kid who beat her, against all odds, at Wimbledon."

"I think she hated me for seeing her at her lowest moment. But mostly I think she hated me for hearing her cry. She's never forgiven me for it."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Serena is through to the Round of 16! <br>Her next opponent: Maria Sharapova <a href="https://t.co/OrWZy7Dmhd">pic.twitter.com/OrWZy7Dmhd</a></p>&mdash; SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) <a href="https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/1002981192768114688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 2, 2018</a></blockquote>

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Today, Serena Williams finally answered those rumours when asked about it by a reporter: "I think the book was 100% hearsay, which was a little bit disappointing."

"I have cried in the locker room many times after a loss, and that's what I have seen a lot of people do. I think it's normal. I think if anything, it shows the passion and the desire and, you know, the will that you have to want to go out there and do the best.

Source:

http://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/23679028/french-open-serena-williams-maria-sharapova-rivalry-compelling-lopsided