WTA Finals Rewind: Maria Sharapova battles back to beat Serena Williams in 2004 final

This week we’re looking back at five of the most unforgettable moments in the history of the WTA Finals, with the 2022 edition of the season-ending championships taking place in Fort Worth, Texas next week.

We’ve already covered Monica Seles’ five-set victory over Gabriela Sabatini in the 1990 final and Steffi Graf’s marathon win over Martina Hingis in another five-setter in the 1996 final, and today it’s another pair of WTA legends playing their hearts out with season-ending glory—and a million dollars—on the line.

Sharapova battles back to beat Serena in 2004 final

Going into the final of the 2004 WTA Finals, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova were tied in their head-to-head, 1-1, with both meetings coming earlier that year—Serena won in the fourth round of Miami, 6-4, 6-3, while Sharapova prevailed on the biggest of all stages, the Wimbledon final, 6-1, 6-4.

Needless to say, Serena—a six-time Grand Slam champion at the time—wouldn’t be thrilled losing another big final to the Russian.

After eight straight holds to start the match, Sharapova blinked in her 4-all service game, double faulting to hand over the break, and Serena pounced, storming out to 40-0 in her 5-4 service game, closing it out two points later.

Serena was actually up a set and a break at one point, 6-4, 2-1, before the abdominal injury she had been struggling with that day began bothering her more and more, and this time it was Sharapova who pounced, reeling off the next five games in a row to run away with a 6-2 second set.

Unable to serve with her usual power, Serena began making up for it by ripping her groundstrokes as hard as she could, and she went up 4-0 in the third. But there was one last plot twist to come, as Sharapova upped the aggression too, winning the last six games in a row to complete a streaky 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory.

Sharapova ripped a forehand return winner down the line on match point off a 64-mile-per-hour first serve from an ailing Serena.

“Oh my gosh, I’m still shaking, I can’t believe it,” Sharapova told ESPN afterwards.

“So many things are going through my mind right now—you know, the way I just pulled it out and stuck in there. I mean, oh, it’s crazy!”

And on the third set?

“It was very unreal,” Sharapova continued.

“I knew she couldn’t serve that big, but once she had the ball in play she would just go for it, and the first four games she didn’t miss anything. And maybe I slowed down the pace a little bit, but I don’t know, I just stuck in there.”

At the time it seemed like the beginning of the next big rivalry, but it was not to be—Serena never lost to her again, going 19-0 against her the rest of her career.