Svetlana Kuznetsova’s countrywoman, Maria Sharapova, has been defeated by Serena Williams of USA in the semi final round of the ongoing Brisbane International Tennis tournament.

This win didn’t come that easily for Serena. She was pushed to the limits by her Russian opponent, but, eventually, she came through.

Had Sharapova been able to get better of Serena in this match, it would have been her first victory over the American superstar in the last 9 years.

The last time that Sharapova had secured a victory over Serena was at All England Club way back in 2004. She was just 17 years of age at that point of time.

In total, there have been 17 matches played between Serena and Sharapova so far and the Russian player has managed to win just a couple of them.

However, despite losing the match, Sharapova should take heart from the fact that she moved quite nicely in all her matches in this tournament and that was a big positive as she was returning after recovering from a nasty injury.

The tennis lovers were quite excited about this match not just because of the fact that these two are high quality players, but, also, because of the statements being made by these two about each other in the recent past. It was obvious that both of them would try their best to win this contest and the same happened. Some brilliant tennis was played by both the players, but, at the end, it was Serena who proved to be better.

In the final, Serena will be up against another quality opponent i.e. Victoria Azarenka. Her record against Azarenka is pretty impressive too. She has faced the Belarusian in 20 matches so far and has beaten her 17 times.