5 Things that Sharapova needs to do to defeat Serena

The year was 2005. It was the 4th meeting between the beauty from Siberia and the fighter from Michigan. The match was setup for Maria Sharapova leading 6-2 5-4 and serving for the match. But Serena Williams went on to win the match 8-6 in the third.

From then on, it has been a one sided rivalry with Serena winning the next 16 meetings between the two and only dropping two sets in those matches. This included the 2007 Australian Open final in which an unseeded Williams destroyed Sharapova 6-1 6-2.

Sharapova has tried various things such as hiring a video analyst to analyse her matches against Serena following her defeat in the Olympics final but nothing has paid off.

Many people have suggested, including Chris Evert, that it may be impossible For ‘Masha’ to beat the 6-time Australian Open champion. Some people have even gone to the extent of saying that maybe Sharapova should become a left handed player (as she was a lefty when she was a kid) if she has to turn the tide against the younger Williams.

But as someone correctly said that “Nothing is Impossible”, we look at the things Sharapova needs to do to upset the World No. 1.

1 . Serve it up big

Maria Sharapova’s serving in the recent past has been very poor to say the least. A part of it has to do with the shoulder injury she suffered which forced he to use the shoulder over shoulder technique which reduces the serve’s power.

In the last 16 encounters with Williams she failed to cross the 70% first serve points won even once and the maximum aces she hit was a mere 5.

But in this tournament, to everyone’s surprise, she has been leading the aces chart with 51 of them. She served a mammoth 21 of them in the match against Belinda Bencic. If she continues this trend, she should put up a great fight against Serena.

2. Aggressive on 2nd serve returns

In the last match between Serena and Sharapova at Wimbledon 2015, Williams won 57% of her second serve points whereas in the Wimbledon final of 2004, (which Masha won 6-1 6-4) Serena only managed to win 43% of second serve points .

In this Australian Open, Maria has been the best returner winning a total of 75 second serve returns. But against the aggressive second serve of Williams it would be difficult for her to reproduce these numbers. The key to the match would be keeping the second serve points won by Williams to below 45%.

3. Variety on her shots

It is imperative for Sharapova to use shots such as backhand slices and drop shots to unsettle Serena. Instead of just playing hardballs from the baseline, she needs to make the occasional approaches to the net.

Players who have had good records against Williams such as Justine Henin and Martina Hingis were not power hitters but had all-round shot making abilities.

To illustrate this fact further, in the US open 2015 semifinal, Roberta Vinci used the backhand slice to keep the ball low due to which Serena Williams committed an unprecedented 40 unforced errors.

4. Go for the second serve

Sharapova needs to go after the second serve as if it is her first serve even at the cost of double faults, because putting a sub-par second serve would essentially mean gifting a point to Williams and would also give more confidence to Williams on the return shot.

At the Wimbledon 2004 final, Sharapova won 60% of second serve points (serve averaging 156 km/h) and in their latest Wimbledon installment she won a mere 27% of second serve points (serve averaging 150km/h).

If Sharapova is to win the match she needs to win at least 55% of second serve points.

5. Changing patterns of play

It has been the tendency for Maria Sharapova to direct most of the traffic down the line with both her forehand and backhand whereas it has been found that Serena mostly commits errors on crosscourt shots. Also Sharapova needs to take the ball early and convert backhands into inside in and inside out forehands.

On the return she needs to change her positions (as most great returners such as Andy Murray do) and could try the occasional chip and charge to upset the serving rhythm of Serena.