Maria Sharapova looked in the mirror and thought the bride’s gown fit nicely. God knows she had been trying hard enough to lose the pounds to fit into it. This was her fifth attempt and this was the furthest she had ever got. She checked out the pattern, the fit around the waist, the bust. She admired the neckline. And then her eyes met the mirror. She looked away. No, the dress really did not fit at all. She was not cut out to be the bride. She had better take it off and get into the dress that became her: the bridesmaid’s one.
Maria tossed the ball in the air. It was her second serve. She caught it. Serena had break point against her. It was a break point to level the set at 3-3. But it would do more than that. Maria knew exactly what it would do. She may have been only three games away from the match, and Serena might have been only ten games away but it made no difference. It was this point now that mattered. This point would tell Serena all she needed to know. Maria tossed the ball again. If she saved this point, she still had a chance. She watched as it came down. She still had a chance, her first chance since 2005 when she had held match point sin Melbourne. She came down over the ball. She watched as it missed the line. She listened as the official called fault and the Umpire called game Serena.
Game Serena. Since that 2004 YEC final when Maria fell to her knees after beating a hobbling Serena it had been game Serena more times than she cared to remember, to the tune of ten consecutive defeats, and some of them deafening. Those two famous victories in the 2004 Wimbledon and YEC finals seemed to loop in Serena’s head each time they met on court, winding Serena up so much that she unleashed more winners against Maria than anyone else on the tour. While against others she might let up and lose a set or even a match, against Maria she refused to do anything but play her best, a somewhat backhanded compliment if ever there was one.
But today things were as if 2005-2012 had never happened. It was like 2004 all over again. Maria was striking the ball hard and in the lines. She was moving Serena, finding the open court. And at 5-4 receiving in the first set, she had taken her opportunities as Serena, unable to find her first service and forehand, faltered. Maria pumped her fist and ran to the chair and ran as quickly out of it again, the momentum on her side, momentum which she continued to run with, striking away and playing the hard-hitting and fired-up tennis that had seen her win in Indian Wells and enter the Miami final on an 11 match winning streak.
But the time machine began to falter. 2004 turned ever so slowly into 2005, 2006, 2010 and 2011, years not just when she had lost to Serena but years when she had been runner up in Miami. And as the double fault handed Serena the break back the time machine was well and truly in need of repair. Serena, though, had repaired the faults that had seen her in a losing position, the wobble of her opponent being all the space in which she needed to step and strike back. Back in the match and with the prospect of overtaking Steffi Graf to become the most decorated Miami champion with 6 titles, the history loving Serena began to focus on that loop of Maria on her knees in 2004. Serena began to find her serve and those forehands found the line. As she held serve and then broke, held serve and then broke, we all watched on as the inevitable unfolded before us, as Maria went down on her knees but not in celebration, and Serena raised her arms aloft as those all too haunting and familiar words for Maria boomed from the Umpire’s microphone:
Game, set and match Miss. Williams.
The two shook hands and then went to shake hands with the Umpire, Serena going first as she is wont to do, despite etiquette being that the loser goes first. But Serena being Serena likes to have it her way, and against Maria that is something to which she has worked hard to become very much accustomed. The umpire took Serena’s hand and then watched as Maria wandered off, neglecting to shake his hand second.
Second. In Miami and against Serena, that is a position that Maria has been stuck in. A position she said after the match from which she would like to rise from. The tennis world watched as with her usual grace she stood back and caught the bouquet. Yet, we all know that behind the gracious smile would have been a mind working away at figuring how how she would get the figure to once again fit into that bride’s gown, look herself in the eye and tell herself how well it fit her, and, most importantly, have that loop that played over and over in Serena’s mind play itself out on the court in real life. And there would be nowhere more fitting than that very same court where she stood now, bouquet in hand, in Miami.
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