Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova will be going at it on Friday morning/night in the Brisbane International tennis tournament, as the two stars meet in the semifinals down under in Australia after getting through their quarter matches and this rivalry will get another chance to take center stage as the two prepare for their match starting up at 5:30 am ET and that will be for the United States time at Pat Rafter Arena.
Williams has owned Sharapova in their careers and as of late, as she has won 13 straight times against Sharapova and is 14-2 overall in her career and the last time the two played was back in the French Open finals. Williams dominated in that match and the two have not been friendly with each other for some after some issues came up around Wimbledon when each made comments about their love lives, but now the focus will be on tennis and in Brisbane it will be Williams that should be the favorite and the way she played last season, she should be the favorite for everything.
Sharapova is coming off of a shoulder issue and she made her return at Brisbane and now Williams is looking to get back into form before the first Grand Slam of the year, as she lost to Sloane Stephens last season in the Australian Open and she would love to avenge that this year. Williams won the French and US Open last year and she was extremely dominant, losing just four times in over 80 matches and now she has the chance to get it going again. Last year she won two majors and 11 tournament titles and she was impressive while winning 78 matches and she won AP female athlete of the year and she only looks to be getting better in her old age, as she has never had a year like she did last season.
Check here for the Williams and Sharapova live coverage.
This will be the last chance for the two to play before the Australian open and Sharapova comes in after beating out 2012 Brisbane champion Kaia Kanepi in three sets and Williams had no trouble getting through her quarters match, winning 6-3, 6-3 in straight sets to get through and for the first set she did not even lose a point on her serve and that will be a major issues for Sharapova in their match.
Sharapova has long had issues with Williams's serve and with her coming off of a shoulder injury, it could get even tougher and now Victoria Azarenka could be waiting after she had a tough match to get through the semis and she ended up winning 6-4, 6-7 (7), 6-1, while Williams got through her early matches with ease. Williams improved her title total from seven to 11 in 2013 from 2012 and now she is looking to get hot again as the Australian Open is coming on January 13 and that will be the first major of the year and comes after Williams and Rafael Nadal won the last major at the US Open last season and now he also will be looking to get off to a big and fast start.
