Serena Williams And Maria Sharapova To Face Off In Australian Open 2016 Quarter Final

Serena Williams, defending Australian Open champion, will go head-to-head against her longtime rival Maria Sharapova in a quarterfinal match in Melbourne.

Both Williams and Sharapova have won all six of their matches in the competition thus far and are gunning for a seventh win. Both players are fierce competitors, and tennis fans should be in for a showdown.

As the BBC reports, top-seeded Serena Williams is in great form and beat her last challenger, Margarita Gasparyan, 6-2, 6-1 in under one hour. The 34-year-old tennis champion is going for her 22nd Grand slam title. She beat Sharapova at the Australian Open final last year.

“It was a great final last year, I came close in the second set but not close enough,” Sharapova recently said of her upcoming match against Serena Williams. “I’ll look forward to playing the best in the world and it’ll be a great match.”

Sharapova last won the Australian Open in 2008. She recently trounced Swiss tennis player with 21 aces and won 7-5, 7-5.

Serena Williams told the BBC that she’d been previously unaware of who she’d be playing next. She says her focus, as the defending Australian Open champion, is on doing her best.

“I had no idea who I was playing next,” Williams. “She had a really good match earlier but I’ve got nothing to lose and will just do my best.

What’s most important for Serena is that she’s confident in her game, no matter the person she’s playing against.

“I just feel like I’m really confident in my game right now, not against her or against any other opponent.”

The BBC reports that Serena Williams won her last 17 matches against Maria Sharapova. In fact, the last time Serena lost to Sharapova, the year was 2004 and they were facing off in the Tour Championships in Los Angeles. Sharapova has not won a set during their last six encounters.

Serena Williams is the most famous women in tennis. She has won a record breaking number of Grand Slams and was named sports person of the year by Sports Illustrated Magazine in 2015.

Despite all of those achievements, Serena recently expressed that she feels lonely at The Australian Open this year, The Guardian reported. She revealed that she’s been spending her down time visiting the botanical gardens.

“I went to the botanical gardens, just walking, one day. I went to a costume shop the other day. I found a sword that looked like He Man’s sword. I tried to post on my Snap Chat. I didn’t have service,” the star tennis player said.

“I have been spending a lot of time learning about myself this trip. It’s been kind of sad. I have been, like, alone a lot. It’s been kind of like boring.”

What’s probably been boring is the ease at which she’s been able to dispatch the players who have stood on the other side of the court against her in successive wins. But, even though she does seem to be on a a streak, she did admit that she made a few errors in her game on Sunday, The Guardian reported.

“I made a few errors, but it was a different game [to the previous ones]. There was definitely room for improvement. My serve wasn’t as good today.”

According to The Guardian, Sharapova is also cautiously assessing her chances in the upcoming Australian Open quarterfinal. She admitted at her post-match press conference that Serena is a formidable opponent.

“There is no reason I shouldn’t be looking to improve and to getting my game in a better position than any other previous round. It’s only going to be tougher – especially against Serena,” she said.

[Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images]