- This is Maria Sharapova's autobiography.
For a book ostensibly about its author,
the text talks a lot about someone else,
Serena Williams.
The book generated controversy
because Sharapova's fixation with Serena
encompasses more than just tennis.
There is a narrative around these two.
And a beef that hides just beneath its surface.
Until it doesn't.
To understand this beef, you first need to understand
the tennis rivalry or lack thereof.
Maria Sharapova entered the elite tennis circuit
right as Serena Williams was reaching its pinnacle.
It was the first of several pinnacles for Serena.
Her career kinda looks like the Himalayas.
The 16 year old from Russia made her major debut
at the 2003 Australian Open.
The same tournament that 21 year old Williams won
to complete a streak of taking all four major championships
consecutively over two years.
The so-called Serena Slam.
This was concrete evidence that tennis had a new monarch.
Later in '03, Sharapova started to actually win
some matches in major tournaments.
While Serena suffered a setback.
Damage to her left knee required surgery,
and she pulled out of the tour for months.
Carrying into the beginning of 2004.
Williams missed more time than anticipated
but booked some non-tennis gigs in the interim,
which brought out the peanut gallery of critics
wondering if Serena would regain her elite form,
and if she took tennis seriously enough.
But she returned to the court eventually
and got back in the swing of things in tournament play,
including a pretty smooth victory in her first
ever meeting with Sharapova at the Miami Open.
Serena wasn't 100% but she was getting there,
and she battled her way into the Wimbledon final that year.
Her opponent?
Maria Sharapova.
Who was only seeded 13th but mounted multiple comeback
upsets to reach her first ever major final.
To everyone's surprise the 17-year old commanded the match.
She broke Serena early and won the first set.
Then came back from behind in the second set
to win Wimbledon.
A historic upset that left people wondering
if they were witnessing a tectonic shift
in top women's tennis.
Serena would later joke
that that wasn't the real her at Wimbledon.
But Sharapova suggested Williams accept this new reality.
Then came back from a set down to beat Serena
in the final of the 2004 WTA Championships.
After Sharapova's two victories against Williams,
many people found the notion of a new powerhouse
in women's tennis irresistible.
Sharapova had proven herself as a player
but its important to acknowledge
that she had equal appeal as a star.
She was talented and she was conventionally attractive.
Even Serena celebrated this.
And the media found it particularly compelling.
However the actual tennis part of all this
reached a pivotal crossroads
when Williams and Sharapova next met on the court.
At the 2005 Australian Open semi-final.
Sharapova served for three match points in the third set.
On one of them she came very close to acing Williams
for the win.
But Serena fought off all three of those matchpoints
and stormed back to win the match.
She'd go on to win the whole tournament.
Her first major championship since 03'.
And I really can't stress enough
that that meeting at the Australian Open
which nearly went the other way,
was pivotal as far as tennis is concerned.
Sharapova's career since then has been great.
With multiple major wins spaced out over
the intervening decade and change.
But each of those was earned in part
by avoiding Serena in the bracket.
Because, of course, Serena has more major victories
than anyone in history.
And while her presence on the tour has varied
with her health.
William has smoked Sharapova at every opportunity,
going all the way back to 2005.
That is not an exaggeration.
After an extended period away from the game
to tend to her physical and mental well-being.
Williams faced the number one ranked Sharapova
in the 2007 Australian Open final.
Sharapova drilled Williams with an overhead
in the first set.
Serena stared her down, then dismantled her.
Serena got Wimbledon revenge in 2010.
She kicked Sharapova's ass at the London Olympics.
She kicked Sharapova's ass at the French Open,
typically the Russian's strongest major.
She's kicked Sharapova's ass in Miami,
Madrid, and the Middle East.
Sharapova didn't get past Williams in the bracket
again until the 2018 French Open.
And that was because Serena retired
before their match up with a pectoral injury.
Maria's record against Serena up to that point
was the two wins in 04' and 19 losses.
So despite early signs that Sharapova might rival,
or even overtake Williams, they have proven
to be nowhere near equal on the court.
Sharapova is a great tennis player.
Williams is one of the greatest pro athletes
in human history.
But the dynamics change when Maria and Serena
put down their rackets.
They've got some stuff in common.
Both speak their minds, but they never
had anything particularly exciting to say
about one another until 2013.
When we learned Serena and Maria
had something else in common.
Grigor Dimitrov.
That year Williams was profiled by Stephen Rodrick
for Rolling Stone.
And in the course of his access to Serena,
Rodrick overheard and reported a phone conversation
she had with her sister Venus
that included the following quote about an unnamed subject.
"She begins every interview with I'm so happy,
"I'm so lucky, its so boring.
"She's still not going to be invited to the cool parties.
"And hey, if she wants to be with the guy
" with a black heart, go for it".
Everyone including Rodrick assumed Williams
was talking about Sharapova
who was at the time, dating Dimitrov.
A Bulgarian tennis player
who, according to rumors, was Serena's ex.
And apparently had a black heart.
For almost a decade these two had slugged it out
on the court with barely any sign of real animosity.
Yet all of a sudden here was this candid sign of beef
published in a damn magazine.
Serena quickly apologized to Sharapova
both privately and in public.
- [Narrator] Sharapova seemed to accept the apology.
- [Narrator] But she got a little dig in there too.
- That right there, was Maria implying that Serena
dated her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou.
Williams left it at that.
And both players returned to taking the high road, mostly.
Serena did give one quote about how much she cherished
her dominant record against Sharapova.
And Sharapova told The New York Times
she had the utmost respect for Williams on the court.
But off the court things were different.
Observers thought they saw the two players avoiding
one another on the court at Brisbane in 2014.
But any hostility was unspoken
or passive aggressive at worst.
William's even tweeted one time
about how much she loved Sharapova's fashion.
But there was no doubt after the boyfriend comments
that, beef exists below the surface.
And further flare ups have illuminated even more.
See, Serena and Maria have other stuff in common.
They are for instance both among the highest paid
female athletes in the world.
Interestingly William didn't become number one
in that ranking until 2016.
Sharapova had been highest paid for the 11 years
preceding that, despite being the less accomplished player.
And the financial hit Sharapova took in 2016, probably
had to do with her failing a test for banned substances.
There is some irony in that because Williams
has been pestered for years about her muscular physique.
Despite never having failed a drug test.
In 2014 Sharapova herself condemned disgusting
remarks members of the Russian Federation
made about the appearance of the Williams sisters.
Maria knows full well that Serena
has been subject to racism her whole career.
Both explicit racist slurs and implicit racism
couched in comments about her body or her demeanor.
Which brings us back to the book.
It's not surprising that Sharapova would talk about
Williams frequently in telling her life story.
Serena's name even comes up in the about the author section.
And most of these many, many, mentions are respectful
even reverent of the greatest player ever.
But Sharapova also made some puzzling choices in here.
Mostly concentrated around the story
of beating Serena at Wimbledon.
She describes the scene in the locker room
following the match.
Serena bawling and emitting guttural sobs,
and she suggests Serena hated her
and vowed to never lose to her again.
And then there is this part.
The bit about Sharapova being a skinny kid,
that echoes other lines in the book
contrasting their appearances.
Like, harping on Serena's thick legs
and how she is intimidating and strong
and tall, really tall.
Which like, yes, these two are built differently
but, even as a teenager Sharapova towered over Williams.
It's just an odd thing to dwell on.
Once Serena caught wind of these passages
she addressed them in her own way.
Soon after the book came out in 2017,
she wrote a Reddit post about her daughter
that was addressed to her mother but seemed to respond
to the comments about her physique in the book.
While Sharapova did what she could
to explain those comments.
- [Narrator] And said she would speak to Serena one on one
about what she wrote.
- [Narrator] But whatever came of that
Williams still sounded perturbed by the book a year later.
- [Narrator] Sharapova insists she and Serena
should be close since they have so much in common.
- [Narrator] But there are just too many factors chilling
any potential warmth between these two.
On the court there is a lopsided rivalry
with one early historic exception.
Off the court there is a public dialogue.
Two people exchanging comments about one another,
that have been petty at times, even outright cruel.
And at other times have been troublingly tone deaf.
But these two don't do much speaking to one another.
- [Narrator] Because underlying all of this.
The tennis, the gossip, the stardom,
is an icy layer of beef.