Serena Williams came out victorious against Maria Sharapova on triumphant US Open
It was an anticlimactic clash of the titans on the Arthur Ashe Stadium as Serena Williams thrashed Maria Sharapova in the first night match of the US Open.
Williams was on fire (Pic Credit: AFP/Getty Images) |
This rivalry has always had plenty of bite off court but often on it has lacked true competitive edge. Indeed, this is the American’s 19th straight win over the Russian.
As a result of the 6-1 6-1 drubbing on Monday night under the lights – which lasted less than an hour – Sharapova will drop outside of the world’s top-130. In truth, for large portions of the match she barely looked deserving of a spot inside the top-200.
To blame the one-sided nature of the result purely on the 32-year-old’s fall in grace would not do justice to the focus and ferocious display of her 23-time Grand Slam winning opponent.
There were no signs of the back issues that plagued her in the build-up to the final major of 2019 and the 37-year-old moved as well as she has done since returning from pregnancy.
She served powerfully and accurately and hunted the Sharapova serve. The world No. 87 failed to win a single point on her second serve in the duration of the first set, winning just 12 points in total.
It was a far less dramatic affair than her last trip to Ashe. There was no screaming at umpires, no tearful champions, no venom-spitting crowd. Just one all-time great giving another an absolute pasting.
While Williams – who sported a long-sleeved black leotard – will go onto face compatriot Caty McNally, Sharapova will return to the drawing board. Considering how far away from being a top-level star she feels, it would be little surprise if she just decided to pack it in.
Like Ashe crowd member Mike Tyson, Sharapova has always been known as a fighter and there was a lot more heart in the second set but one senses resurrecting her career is a fight she simply cannot win.
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