A Tale of Two Tennis Players

The attached picture that I selected to accompany this article is a combined photo of Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova at their respective post-match press conferences after Serena's 6- 6-3 quarterfinal victory over Maria. If I hadn't included the scoreline would you know who the match?

However, if you look closely you can see the completely serious and "I'm all business" face of Serena versus the sullen expression of Maria. That tells you everything about this match -- and much more.

Serena and Maria are both older, wiser and more mature players these days. I wouldn't expect extreme reactions from the results of a quarterfinal match like this one. Yes it was an important match, but not a crucial one like perhaps a grand slam final. Both clearly wanted to do well at this event, but moreso as a step towards peaking at the US Open. So Maria wasn't infinitely crushed by the result, nor was Serena over the top ecstatic.

For Maria, this match gave her a ton of information on all of the things she needs to work on in order to prepare for a title run in New York. Now that Serena is back on tour the stakes are different. As witness between her match against Daniela versus her match against Serena, the difference between the two levels is a great one. There are no players on tour currently who can put Maria on her heels so quickly as Serena, regardless of whether she is serving or returning. If Maria is serving, the returns will come back lightning fast at acute angles. It's hard to start a match already scrambling for points. And that assumes that she won't have already buckled under the mental pressure of Serena's return game with multiple double faults. Sadly, that was more often the case last night.

On return games, she has her best chances IF (and it's a big if) she can get her racquet on Serena's serve. Last night she was completely unable to get a toehold in Serena's service games. She won less that 25% of Serena's first serve points and a better 50% of Serena's second serve points. That is not going to cut it for a victory over Serena.

She seems to realize now more than ever she will have good days and not so good days, especially on her serve. But she still believes she can contend for big titles, and she will fight hard in every point of every match to turn the situation around. Admirable? Yes. Enough for this night? No.

Serena seemed to use this match as a gauge for the final bits of fine-tuning she needs to make to her game during the hardcourt season. From her press conference on Thursday we knew that she would go on the court expecting to win, especially given her head to head record with Maria which stood at 6-2 prior to their quarterfinal. This includes the drubbing she handed Maria in the '07 Australian Open final. The two losses were big ones though: Wimbledon and the WTA Championships in '04. A long time ago, yes. But a reminder to not underestimate her opponent.

The gauge indicates good things for Serena if that was her thinking. She was favorable in most categories. More aces, more first serve points won, more second serve points won, more winners, less forced errors and less unforced errors. Her first serve percentage was below 60%, so that will be something to clean up as the season heads towards the US Open.

Still, it was a comprehensive win on Serena's part. And it speaks volumes to her champion's resolve that she can keep perspective on the bigger picture i.e. get her ranking back up to the top of the game AND win more grand slams. Anything less is not good enough or acceptable. The same holds true for Maria, so let's hope for another showdown in the lead up to the Open.