Maria Sharapova: I’ve Found 14 Ways Not To Beat Serena

Maria Sharapova suffered her 14th straight loss to Serena Williams Thursday night in Brisbane. The Russian, though, took the positives after the loss to the rival who has dominated her winning 15 of 17 meetings overall.

“I just found 14 ways how not to win,” Sharapova said after the 62, 76 loss to Serena. “That’s the only way you can look at it. I could be in a worse position and never face her, which means I would be losing much earlier in tournaments than I want to be. So if I’m giving myself opportunities to go into tournaments and fight through matches to get to a position to play against her, I consider myself very lucky to be able to play against her and give myself another chance to try and beat her.”

Sharapova was playing in her first event since a loss to Sloane Stephens at Cincinnati in August. And despite the defeat she was encouraged by her play and by her shoulder which held up for three matches.

“It was a big step for me to be here,” she said. “I worked hard. I did a lot of things in order to heal my injury and then get back on the court. It’s a tough process for athletes, the grind of getting back, because you’re used to competing at a high level. It’s not as if I was in retirement. It was tough not seeing my name in the draws and tough seeing everybody playing tournaments and you’re just kind of going about trying to find a way to heal an injury and bit sure when that will happen. A lot of question marks.
So when you’re back out here, you’re really grateful.

“Moving forward the recovery is going to be extremely important for me. Overall I’m happy with the shoulder progress.”

Sharapova now heads to Melbourne where she’ll bid for a second Australian Open title.