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Serena Williams beat Maria Sharapova in Charleston last week and it’s getting closer but it’s not quite a rivalry yet.

Serena and Venus Williams have played sporadically in the past few years and that means we’ve missed out on some rivalries. I don’t mean the rivalry between Serena and Venus because it hasn’t been much of a rivalry. There’s not enough animosity between them, understandably as they are sisters, and they haven’t met in a final since 2003.

One of the rivalries we missed out on is the Serena – Maria rivalry. Maria Sharapova was seventeen years old when she played her first final against Serena at Wimbledon in 2004 and it was a shocking match. Maria took the title by the score of 6-1, 6-4. She took Serena down 6-1 in the first set and Serena had won the last two Wimbledons!

Later that year, Maria beat Serena again to win the WTA championships and it was a dramatic match. Serena injured an abdominal muscle in the second set and could barely lift her arm yet she managed to claw her way to a 4-0 lead in the third set before she finally gave out and lost the last six games.

At the end of the match, Maria’s father, Yuri Sharapov, ran onto the court to celebrate with Maria in a move that was disrespectful at the very least and controversial at the time. Someone at courtside understandably told him off and he responded with an f.u which leads us to the WTA event at Charleston last week where Serena and Maria met on the green clay in the quarterfinals.

Since that WTA championship, Serena had beaten Maria four straight times and she had smashed her in both matches they played last year. Maria won a total of five games in four sets in those two matches. Of course, she had a shoulder injury most of last year too but this year has been very different. Maria won her third slam at the Australian Open and is currently 24-2 on the year.

And it isn’t Yuri who runs out on the court now, it’s her coach Michael Joyce and there’s nothing controversial about it because coaches are allowed to come onto the court during set breaks. Well, almost nothing controversial. Coaches have to wear a mic so that we can hear their comments and when Joyce came out for the second set break, it appeared that he almost called Serena a bitch. Here’s how it went. Joyce said, “You just be tough and that’s it and you gotta believe you’re going to beat this b-uhh girl. OK?” Joyce and Maria both laughed and then Joyce said, “I almost slipped up there, huh?”

Joyce was on court so often because Maria was having trouble closing out sets. She was broken while serving for the first set and ended up losing the set. She was broken again while serving for the second set and managed to win it on the second try, but she faded in the third and lost the match, 7-5, 4-6, 6-1.

I support on court coaching but I don’t see why coaches and players should be subject to microphones. For one thing, it’s easy for a coach to pick up what an opposing coach says to their player. Someone watching a broadcast of the match could easily send a text message to a coach and that coach could then send hand signals to their player with a counter strategy or, if the match goes to three sets, they can speak to their player on court.

And because a coach is wearing a mic, they always have to be on their best behavior and that’s unfortunate. If someone wants to trash their player’s opponent, let ‘em if it gets their players psyched up. Having said that, Serena now knows what Joyce almost said and I take a bit of perverse pleasure in the fact that it might add to a rivalry that I’ve been waiting for. Both Serena and Maria now have three titles this year and Serena’s record is arguably better than Maria’s at 19-1. Serena went on to win the title in Charleston with a victory over Vera Zvonareva.

All we need is a victory or two from Maria and we’re in business. We’ll have a real live rivalry.