There’s been a lot of talk over the last year, some of it done in this column, about Maria Sharapova’s mid-career transformation on clay. Suddenly, instead of slipping, the Cow on Ice was sliding, a trick that never comes naturally to a hard-courter like her. Instead of belting the ball at the lines, the woman once derided as a “mindless ball basher” was retrieving, defending, constructing points, and winning 23 straight matches on red clay.
There was, of course, one small caveat to this story: She hadn’t beaten Serena Williams on the surface. Their only meeting on clay in the last year had come on the blue version laid down in Madrid in 2012, and Serena had won that easily. On Sunday, Sharapova had a chance at a rematch in the same city; a chance, on the real red stuff, to prove that she had earned the right to be called the Queen of Dirt.
Leave it to Serena to take all of that away from Maria, in 78 minutes and two quick sets. Williams has now won their last 12 matches, dating back to 2005, and 20 of the last 22 sets they’ve played. But this must have been among the most discouraging of those defeats for Maria. She had taken a rare set in their last encounter, in Miami, and had talked afterward about how she felt like she was making progress against her nemesis. Sunday was a regression: Not only did Serena allow her just five games, but she made Sharapova look like she had forgotten all that she had learned about clay-court tennis.
Afterward, asked to assess what makes Serena so tough, Sharapova focused on her power. That may sound obvious, but it's still the most relevant factor; Serena's easily the biggest hitter out there, Maria said. Big enough that Sharapova had to lurch and lunge after the ball. She was off-balance and a step behind from the first shot of each point, on both sides of the net. Serena’s serve, as it always does, handcuffed her, and so did her returns. I’m not sure I’ve seen Serena stand in and knock off Sharapova’s serves with as much blatant ease as she did on Sunday. No amount of improved play on clay was going to help Maria prepare for those rockets. Maria won just 36 percent of points on her second serve.
Watching the Madrid final, I’d say the Williams-Sharapova matchup—it can’t be elevated into anything close to a “rivalry” at the moment—hinges on two things, one physical and one mental. Because Serena is the stronger player from the ground, and she’s very tough to break, Sharapova must serve her best to stand any chance. Yesterday she made just 62 percent of her first serves and double-faulted five times in her first three service games (she finished with eight doubles for the match). Sharapova’s serve, like her clay-court game, has improved over the years, but both need to improve a lot more to handle Serena.
The second, and even more obvious, factor that separates these two is the mentality that each brings to the court when she faces the other. There’s game-sharpening focus on one side, and a crippling lack of belief on the other. In Miami, Sharapova was scolded by her coach, Thomas Hogstedt, for mentioning that Serena had begun to play well in the second set—he didn’t want her worrying about Williams’ game, or using it as an excuse. But after all of the losses, who could blame her? As for Serena, in her previous match, against Anabel Medina Garrigues, she had been sluggish and unfocused, bageled in the second and on the verge of defeat in the third. Facing Sharapova, Serena was exactly the opposite; beating her is a challenge that never gets old. And when Williams did fall behind 1-3 in the second set, she righted herself immediately with a forehand winner and a fist-pump in Maria’s direction. Sharapova won just one more game.
Afterward, Serena said that Madrid, despite being one of the WTA’s four top-level mandatory events, “wasn’t the biggest title.” But it was good preparation for the big one that she wants coming up, in Paris. In 2012, Serena had a great run on clay in the spring, and she has matched it in 2013 with titles in Charleston and Madrid. But last season she arrived at Roland Garros having not won a Grand Slam title in two years—the pressure was different in Paris, where she hadn’t been a champion in a decade, and she felt it right away. Since then Serena has won two majors, Olympic gold, and returned to No. 1. And she has dominated the defending French Open champion on clay.
If you’re looking for a theme to women’s tennis this spring, it might be this: Anything Maria can do, Serena can do better.