Published July 09, 2015 12:15
LONDON, England - It was competitive, especially the second set, but in the end Serena Williamswas just too good for Maria Sharapova, winning, 6-2, 6-4 - her 17th straight win over her longtime rival.
Sharapova met the press afterwards and gave all kinds of props to the World No.1's level of play.
"I never found myself in a position to break her today. I didn't get any looks at break points, so that was quite difficult," she said. "Her serve is one of her biggest strengths. That's one of the reasons she's in the position she's in today. She comes up with the goods from that serve when she's down. And obviously when she's ahead, it makes it a lot easier for her. That was definitely the case today."
What about beyond the serve - how did Sharapova feel about Williams in the rallies?
"I think she had better depth than I did on her shots. That certainly makes a big difference," the Russian said. "I think one of the things she does extremely well when she plays is takes herself from a defensive position into an offensive position again. I was not able to do that in today's match."
At the end of it all, though, Williams now leads Sharapova in their head-to-head, 18-2, and it's not Williams' only lopsided head-to-head - a round earlier she improved to 17-3 against Victoria Azarenka.
"I always expect her to play her best tennis against myself and a few other elite players," Sharapova said. "I don't think it's a secret. I think she knows against certain players she needs to bring out her best. The way that she plays Azarenka, myself, maybe a few others, she has to bring it on the line.
"You can't just produce your best tennis, but more. Obviously it hasn't happened for me."
What does she need to do to close the gap?
"A lot more than I'm doing," she said.
But it's not all negative - looking back at the entire fortnight, this was Sharapova's second time making the quarterfinals or better here in the last nine years, going along with the 2011 final, and by virtue of the result she'll now move back up to No.2 on both the WTA Rankings and the Road To Singapore leaderboard, the journey to the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.
"It's never easy to be the one on the losing end of an event, especially at Wimbledon, but to look at things in perspective, to see where I was a few weeks ago, I had no idea what my result would be here.
"But I expect myself to be a champion of these events. It's disappointing to come out a loser because I know my level can be there, and my level can be at the point of holding these championship trophies.
"I know that's what keeps me going forward."
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