Azarenka–Sharapova rivalry

Maria Sharapova (left) and Victoria Azarenka (right) won 7 Grand Slam singles titles together. They held the number one position on the WTA rankings for 72 weeks.

The Azarenka–Sharapova rivalry was a tennis rivalry between Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova, who met 15 times between 2007 and 2015. Their overall head-to-head was 8–7 favoring Sharapova, Azarenka leading 2–1 in Grand Slam meetings, and 1–0 in Grand Slam finals.

After a few encounters in the early rounds, they met for the first time in a tournament final in July 2010, in Stanford, at Silicon Valley Classic. There, Azarenka easily won in two sets. Next year, a new final for these two players, this time in Florida, at Miami Masters, resulted in another comfortable win for Vika. Their third encounter in a final was at the 2012 Australian Open, which would prove to be their only meeting in a Grand Slam final. At that moment in time, Sharapova was a three time Grand Slam winner and considered a much more experienced player by the tennis commentators. However, this final would become the most lopsided match between these two: Azarenka crushed Sharapova in just 1 hour and 22 minutes, also inflicting her a bagel in the second set.

2012 would prove to be the highlight of their rivalry. After the Australian Open final, Sharapova and Azarenka played another five matches during the 2012 tennis season. The Belarusian continued to dominate Sharapova on hard courts, destroying her in two other finals (at Indian Wells and in Beijing). They also met in one semifinal, at the US Open, where Sharapova put up a fight, resulting in a three set match 2 hours and 42 minutes long, but she was again beaten in three sets. Their third encounter in a Grand Slam was in 2013, again in the semifinals, but this time on clay, at the French Open. Sharapova won in three sets, advancing to the final, where she lost to Serena Williams. The last meetings between Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka were in 2015, Maria managing to pull two more victories, which gave her a slight advantage in the overall head-to-head. Azarenka and Sharapova played a total of 34 sets. Of these, 18 were won by Azarenka and 16 by Sharapova (including one set when the Belarusian retreated due to a injury).

Head-to-head

Legend	Victoria Azarenka	Maria Sharapova
Grand Slam	2	1
WTA Tour Championships	0	1
WTA Tier I / Premier Mandatory / Premier 5	4	4
WTA Tier II / Premier	1	2
Olympics	0	0
Total	7	8

Victoria Azarenka–Maria Sharapova (7–8)

No.	Year	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Round	Winner	Score	Azarenka	Sharapova
1.	2007	Kremlin Cup	Tier I	Hard	Second round	Victoria Azarenka	7–6(11–9), 6–2	1	0
2.	2009	Los Angeles	Premier	Hard	Second round	Maria Sharapova	6–7(4–6), 6–4, 6–2	1	1
3.	2009	China Open	Premier Mandatory	Hard	Second round	Maria Sharapova	6–3, 6–7(5–7), 7–5	1	2
4.	2010	Stanford	Premier	Hard	Final	Victoria Azarenka	6–4, 6–1	2	2
5.	2011	Miami Masters	Premier Mandatory	Hard	Final	Victoria Azarenka	6–1, 6–4	3	2
6.	2011	Italian Open	Premier 5	Clay	Quarterfinals	Maria Sharapova	4–6, 3–0(r)	3	3
7.	2012	Australian Open	Grand Slam	Hard	Final	Victoria Azarenka	6–3, 6–0	4	3
8.	2012	Indian Wells Open	Premier Mandatory	Hard	Final	Victoria Azarenka	6–2, 6–3	5	3
9.	2012	Stuttgart Open	Premier	Clay	Final	Maria Sharapova	6–1, 6–4	5	4
10.	2012	US Open	Grand Slam	Hard	Semifinals	Victoria Azarenka	3–6, 6–2, 6–4	6	4
11.	2012	China Open	Premier Mandatory	Hard	Final	Victoria Azarenka	6–3, 6–1	7	4
12.	2012	WTA Championships	Tour Finals	Hard	Semifinals	Maria Sharapova	6–4, 6–2	7	5
13.	2013	Roland Garros	Grand Slam	Clay	Semifinals	Maria Sharapova	6–1, 2–6, 6–4	7	6
14.	2015	Indian Wells Open	Premier Mandatory	Hard	Third round	Maria Sharapova	6–4, 6–3	7	7
15.	2015	Italian Open	Premier 5	Clay	Quarterfinals	Maria Sharapova	6–3, 6–2	7	8

Breakdown of the rivalry

• Hard courts: Victoria Azarenka, 7–4
• Clay courts: Maria Sharapova, 4–0
• Grass courts: none
• Indoor carpet: none
• Grand Slam matches: Victoria Azarenka, 2–1
• Grand Slam finals: Victoria Azarenka, 1–0
• Year-End Championships matches: Maria Sharapova, 1–0
• Year-End Championships finals: none
• Fed Cup matches: none
• All finals: Victoria Azarenka, 5–1

See also

• List of tennis rivalries

External links

• "Sharapova–Azarenka the best rivalry", Howard Bryant, ESPN, June 19, 2013

This article "Azarenka–Sharapova rivalry" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Azarenka–Sharapova rivalry. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

📰 Article(s) of the same category(ies)

• Murray–Nadal rivalry
• 2014 Junior Fed Cup Final
• Big 3 (tennis)
• Nadal–Wawrinka rivalry
• Sinner–Alcaraz rivalry
• 1996 Junior Fed Cup Final
• 2000 Junior Fed Cup Final

---