Back in 2004, when a 17-year-old Maria Sharapova beat the two-time defending champion at Wimbledon, the tennis world, always on the hunt for the next big thing, really went above and beyond to position them as rivals. Of course, rivals they were, despite the lopsided 20-2 record that Serena Williams had in her favor. And even though fans and the media had a gala time feasting over their apparent personal feud (remember the infamous Rolling Stone interview?), Williams maintained there wasn’t any. “I mean, was there ever beef? I guess. It was just competitive, though,” she told Chris Jackson from ALT last year. And just in case, there were still any doubts about the same, the speech that the 23-time Grand Slam champion gave to induct Maria Sharapova into the International Tennis Hall of Fame should be more than enough to put those to rest.

When Williams was called on to present Sharapova with the honour, the entire crowd began to applaud resoundingly, but most of all Sharapova, who was seen genuinely cheering and hooting for Serena as she took the podium. Williams went on to make an incredibly emotional speech about the pair’s rivalry. “In 2004 when Maria was just 17 years old, she stunned the world and won Wimbledon. To this day she calls it the highlight of her career,” Williams said, “and to this day I call it one of my hardest losses. The match didn’t just make her a champion, it actually made her a star, it launched one of the most talked about and controversial rivalries in tennis. Every time we faced each other, atmosphere shifted, it was thick, tension was real, fire was real,” Williams managed to paint a picture of that era in tennis where even the commentators added fuel to the fire.

However, Williams took control of the podium with some levity and added to her thoughts about the shifting atmosphere, “And honestly you could feel it, and by the way, you could hear it, with all Maria’s grunting, not mine, yours, I was just copying you.” Williams added, clocking Sharapova in the cloud in a moment of playful banter. Back in 2012, when Polish player Agnieszka Radwańska called Sharapova’s trademark grunt “pretty annoying,” the Russian didn’t shy away from a sassy reply. But Williams’ comment only drew laughter, and a harmless accusation that she, too, was guilty of the same. “I was just copying you,” Williams laughed before talking about what really lay at the foundation of their rivalry.

“But behind all of that fire was something else, Even though we didn’t talk about it, maybe we really couldn’t back then, we really respected each other immensely.” And with that one line, Williams said all that needed to be said, culminating in the perfect moment and way for Sharapova to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Maria Sharapova’s response to Serena Williams

Williams ended the speech calling Sharapova one of the world’s greatest sports heroes of all time, then welcoming Sharapova onto the stage to accept the honour herself. After Sharapova and Williams shared a long embrace, commemorating the moment, Sharapova took on Williams’ levity, furthering the playful banter.

“She forgot to give me the trophy,” Sharapova began her speech. “God forbid Serena gives me the trophy. I’ll just take it myself.” Sharapova then shared that Williams spoke to her for an hour to prepare for her speech, not forgetting to mention that they mainly gossiped. Though Sharapova moved back into the emotional vein of things, she didn’t forget to say,”Serena, I thought that today you’d let me win just this once, but you may have won the speech competition, so…”

So there you have it, two of the greatest tennis players of all time have, in one morning, transformed the narrative that was placed upon them, and rewrote the story that needed to be rewritten as it was theirs and no one else’s!