The 23-time Grand Slam winner cleared the air about the once frosty relationship with her longtime rival.
It may be diss track season in the rap world, but for Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova it’s been all about burying the hatchet and putting their epic tennis beef to rest once and for all.
In a new clip featuring Serena that’s been doing the rounds on social media, the 23-time Grand Slam winner declared that there was never any bad blood between her and her longtime rival—at least, “not anymore.”
That’s what she told Chris Jackson from ALT, as they joined Alexis Ohanian in a series profiling the Reddit co-founder’s extensive collection of Serena Williams trading cards. As the trio sifted through packs of Goodwin Champion looking for Serena “Exquisites”, the conversation inevitably turned to the other tennis player featured in the collection: Maria Sharapova.
“Is there any beef there?” Jackson asked, to which Serena firmly responded, “Not anymore.”
“I mean, was there ever beef? I guess. It was just competitive though,” Serena continued. “She was winning, I was winning, you know?
“We both wanted to win, and I don’t think it was personal. It was just, ‘Do you want to win?’”
“We both wanted to win, and I don’t think it was personal. It was just, ‘Do you want to win?’
Fans of the pair have certainly seen Williams and Sharapova’s famously frosty relationship thaw out over the years following the Russian’s 2020 retirement. The two have been seen together at many red carpets and entertainment industry events—including this year’s Met Gala, where the rivals formed a stylish tennis trio alongside Venus Williams as they snapped selfies and posted up a storm.
But while tennis fans commend Serena for keeping it classy, they also certainly remember that their beef did get a bit “personal” and tense over the years…
After all, who can forget the infamous *Rolling Stone* interview where readers thought Williams was shading Sharapova? Or the drama and fallout after the release of Sharapova’s 2017 biography *Unstoppable*, a book that Serena called “100 per cent hearsay”?
Either way, it’s all water under the bridge now as both players’ competitive days seem to be behind them. While the pair’s rivalry was more competitive during their first encounters, by the end of their careers Williams had firmly settled into the lead with a 20-2 head-to-head against Sharapova, including 8-1 at the Grand Slam level.
But with Sharapova walking away from the game after the 2020 Australian Open and Serena announcing her own “evolution” into a new chapter of life at the 2022 US Open, it seems there really isn’t much for these two to beef over anymore.
Although, could even that may be about to change? The 42-year-old recently posted a cryptic tweet that left fans wondering if her story had one more twist in store:
“I’m ready to hit some balls again,” she wrote.