MELBOURNE, Australia — Sven Groeneveld was camped out in the media seats in Rod Laver Arena on Sunday, shifting his experienced gaze from his smartphone to Serena Williams, who was thumping winner after winner down below.
Maybe there’s an app that will solve his problem.
Groeneveld, a Dutchman, has been scouting Williams for nearly 20 years, and it has yet to pay off for Maria Sharapova, the strong woman he has coached for the last two seasons.
Sharapova remains kryptonite to most of the world’s tennis players, and she fended off the talented Swiss 18-year-old Belinda Bencic in a 7-5, 7-5 victory in the fourth round of the Australian Open on Sunday. But Sharapova is Williams’s muse: a shrieking, big-hitting, high-earning invitation to excellence.
The former American star Vitas Gerulaitis came up with one of the great one-liners in tennis history after finally beating Jimmy Connors: “Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row.”
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But somebody does beat Maria Sharapova 17 times in a row, and it is the power player who has cast a shadow as unmistakable as a retractable roof’s over Sharapova’s place in tennis history.
The last time Sharapova beat Williams, Barack Obama had just been elected a senator, and Lindsay Davenport — now a mother of four — was No. 1.
It was November 2004 at the WTA Tour Championships in Los Angeles, and Sharapova, having upset Williams in the Wimbledon final, did so again, coming back to win the final, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.
At the time, it looked like the beginning of a beautiful rivalry. Instead, it was the beginning of Sharapova’s public roasting.
Williams has beaten her on clay. She has beaten her on grass. She has beaten her on hardcourts. She has beaten her indoors. She has beaten her outdoors. She has beaten her in Miami, Charleston, London, Palo Alto, Madrid, Istanbul, Doha, Paris, Brisbane and, on three occasions, Melbourne.