When 17-year-old Maria Sharapova shocked Serena Williams in the 2004 Wimbledon final, few could have predicted just how deep their rivalry would run. The two would meet 22 times after that day, with Serena winning 20 of those battles, an imbalance Sharapova later admitted shaped the very arc of her career. “Serena Williams has marked the heights and the limits of my career — our stories are intertwined, ” she wrote in her memoir. That long, complicated history came full circle on Saturday, when Serena herself stepped up to induct her former foe into the Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, while also explaining why it was normal for her to do the honors.

In a YouTube upload from August 23 by the official International Tennis Hall of Fame , Serena Williams could be heard, un

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