Serena Loves Miami & Her Dolphins

Written by: Staff on 28th March 2014

Serena Loves Miami & Her Dolphins

epa04134326 Serena Williams of the USA reacts to winning a game during her match against Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan at the Sony Open tennis tournament on Key Biscayne in Miami, Florida, USA, 20 March 2014. EPA/RHONA WISE |

Every time Serena Williams wins a match in the Sony Open, and she made quite a habit of doing so over the years after reaching the final nine times and winning the title on six of those occasions, the world no.1 gets asked the question: You really do love Miami.

Another thing she clearly loves doing is beating Maria Sharapova and for the 14th time in succession, Serena triumphed against her arch rival to reach tomorrow’s final again with the score this time being 6-4, 6-3.

Sharapova has to look back ten years to her last wins over Williams, in the Wimbledon final and then rounding off the year at the WTA Championships final at the Los Angeles Staples Center.

Photo by EPA

“I love playing in Miami, this is my home,” said Williams, stating the blindingly obvious. “It wasn’t easy because Maria plays really well here. I had to just stay focused and make my shots.’

“In the early rounds I hadn’t been serving great too much this tournament, and then I started serving a lot better today. I was hitting 120. I was like, `Whoa. Is that me?”

She served nine aces, including a 121 mph pile-driver to once demoralize Sharapova who led in both sets and Serena enthused: “I feel good. I’m really excited. Physically I feel great. I don’t know if it’s an advantage or disadvantage.

Clearly the strange defeat Williams suffered in the Dubai Duty Free Championships against Frenchwoman Alize Cornet has been purged from the memory and she is delighted to be in the familiar surroundings of Key Biscayne’s Crandon Park.

“Well, I love playing here,” she repeated. “I live just really close. I always just drive here, and I feel like if I need something I can go home and get it. I just have my whole life here.

“I train here and we have so many people that come here, because this is where all my friends live. So it’s kind of cool to just come here year after year and play literally at home in your back yard.

“When I grew up I always wanted to play here. I guess I just don’t want to let go. It’s my favorite stop on the tour. It’s home. All my friends come. So it’s perfect for me.”

Williams has only dropped one set on the way to the final, that against Caroline Garcia. She has also beaten Yaroslava Shvedova, Coco Vandeweghe and Angelique Kerber before Sharapova.

And she has done it wearing an outfit depicting the colors of the NFL football team Miami Dolphins which she and sister Venus have partly owned as limited partners since 2009.

“Nike and I wanted to pay homage to my team that I co‑own, so it was like, We should totally do the Dolphin colors. Just have something really fun for Miami. You know, Dolphins are great. So it’s just, Go Dolphins. Go Fins.”

Topics: Miami, Serena, Sharapova, Sony Open, sports news, Tennis