Serena overcomes Sharapova to claim the 2012 Olympic gold medal in style : In 2012 Serena became the first tennis player in the game’s history with all four Majors & the Olympic gold in both singles & doubles!
Over 3 decades back Steffi Graf captured all 4 Major titles & the singles gold medal at the 1988 Olympics for the so-called Golden Slam. The only player who had the prospect of chasing those five titles after Steffi Graf was Serena Williams, completing a career Grand Slam already in 2003 when she won the Australian Open title, with enough time for adding the Olympic gold medal to her collection.
Nonetheless, it seemed to be moving away from her for years, missing the events in 2000 & 2004 & losing in the last 16 to the final champion Elena Dementieva at Beijing in 2008. Still, Serena tasted the Olympic triumphs in the doubles after winning the gold medal with her older sister Venus in 2000 & 2008.
Then when she was 30, Serena had a perfect opportunity to finally take the Olympic singles gold in London 2012. The American returned to Wimbledon a few weeks after winning the fifth singles title at the All England Club & delivered amazing tennis in all six meetings.
Thus, she became the first tennis player in the game’s history with all four Majors & the Olympic gold in both singles & doubles! Serena had to defeat five top-20 opponents en route to a momentous achievement, which was hardly an hurdle for her after dropping 17 games in 12 sets (never more than 3 in a single set) to earn the title. Clearly that year was Serena’s golden year!
On August 4, Serena Williams ousted the former grand slam champion Maria Sharapova 6-0, 6-1 in a rapid 62 minutes, notching her 6th win over the Russian in 8 matches to welcome the Olympic glory. This was the picture-perfect revenge for that 2004 Wimbledon final loss when Sharapova was blazing all guns at the tender age of 17. However 8 years down the line Sharapova’s games was nowhere near that level & never stood a chance against the mighty opponent.
Serena had twenty four winners & just 7 unforced errors in what has been one of the best matches she ever played, dictating both serve & return to leave Maria miles behind.
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