Serena Williams said that she wanted to attain a double-bagel over Maria Sharapova in the Olympic final in London.

The American entered the event seeded fourth and booked her place in the final with straight-set wins over Jelena Jankovic, Urszula Radwanska, 13th seed Vera Zvonareva, eighth seed Caroline Wozniacki and top seed Victoria Azarenka. Here, she thrashed Maria Sharapova 6-0, 6-1 to win her maiden Olympic singles gold, dropping only 17 games in the process.

Speaking after the match, Serena Williams said that the victory ranked very high for her.

Williams was also asked whether she was trying to win 6-0, 6-0 against the Russian. She responded by saying that it would have been “awesome” to do so since Sharapova would try to come back any time

“That would have been awesome only because against Maria, if you give her any hope, she’s trying to come back. ‘Okay, Serena, try to stay focused because she’s so good.’ She won that one game, I could see her pumping her fists. I was like, Oh, boy, here she comes. It was important for me to go out there and do everything,” Williams said.

Nine out of the 22 meetings between Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova were finals, with the former winning seven of those and the latter coming out on top in the first two title clashes between the two. The Russian beat the American to win her maiden Grand Slam title at just 17 during the 2004 Wimbledon Championships. She later came out on top when the two faced one another in the title clash at that year’s WTA Tour Championships.

This was her last win over Serena Williams as the American has beaten her in each fixture ever since, including the Olympic final and three Grand Slam title clashes. The last encounter between the two came in the first round of the 2019 US Open, with Serena Williams beating Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-1.