No. 2 seed, Maria Sharapova of Russia, and No. 3 seed, Serena Williams of the USA, both served up double-bagels in their opening rounds at the Australian Open in Melbourne.
Maria’s unwilling victim was country-woman Olga Puchkova of Russia. One would never know this was Maria’s first match this season due to a collarbone injury. After the match, Maria said: “I didn’t want to focus on the fact I hadn’t played a lot of matches. Just wanted to focus on just what was ahead of me, and really concentrate and be aggressive… I didn’t try to worry about her too much. I just tried to think about what I had to do.”
Serena’s victim was 28-year-old Edina Gallovits of Romania. Serena had a bad fall at 4-0 in her match, turning her ankle. After an eight minute medical time-out, Serena got back to business, which had to be doubly humiliating to her opponent. How embarrassing can it be to not be able to win a single game against an injured opponent. But then, Serena isn’t just any opponent. She has lost only once in her last 45 or so matches.
Both Maria and Serena have humiliated their opponents at three different Grand Slams with double-bagels.
