For the 19^th time in a row Serena Williams crushed Maria Sharapova. After 59 minutes, the score read 6-1, 6-1. It was a lot of the same as previous matches, with Sharapova attempting to hit through Serena, but ending up on the losing end of aggressive exchanges. Credit Sharapova making Serena look like an overwhelming tournament favorite last night. Or maybe it was the Cat Suit, which made Serena look like she was flying all over the court.

One thing is certain though, Serena looks like she’s in better shape than she was a few months back. She’s obviously been working hard on her fitness because she looked quick as lighting last night. She was getting to everything and hitting through the court regardless of position. In the post-match interview with ESPN she noted that her game matches up really well with Sharapova’s.

I have to agree that it’s more of a match up issue with Sharapova than anything else. Unfortunately for Sharapova, she matches up horribly against one of the greatest players of all time, so it gets lots of press. Regardless of the lopsidedness in Sharapova’s record against Serena, she is still a five-time Grand Slam champion, former number one, and future Hall of Famer. Unfortunately for her, Serena makes her look ordinary. Sometimes that’s how the cookie crumbles. This is the way it also crumbled for Andy Roddick against Federer. Roddick finished with a 3-21 record against Federer. Ouch. But think about this, Roddick ended his career with a winning record against Novak Djokovic, at 5-4. So, his losing record against Federer has nothing to do with quality, and mostly to do with match up.

Nevertheless, both of them probably wish they had a lower ranked player to match up badly against, so that it wouldn’t be covered by the press so much. For example, Marat Safin was lucky that he matched up horribly against Fabrice Santoro. Marat dreaded playing the “wizard” and ended his career with only two wins to Fabrice’s seven. Not a lot of press around that lopsided head to head though. However, if it’s two high profile players, we certainly hear about the lopsidedness.