Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova will have their first-ever US Open clash next week, after drawing each other in the first round.
The long-time rivals have faced each other 22 times, but have somehow avoided each other at Flushing Meadow throughout their long careers.
Twelve months after losing the final to Naomi Osaka, Williams will have to hit the ground running in her quest for a 24th Grand Slam title.
But the 37-year-old American will take confidence from her dominant 19-2 head-to-head record against five-times Grand Slam winner Sharapova, who is unseeded.
Williams has won the US Open six times, while Sharapova's lone title came in 2006.
Sharapova beat Williams twice in 2004, but has not prevailed since, apart from a walkover at the 2018 French Open, where the American pulled out with an injury.
Their careers have been inextricably intervined to the point where Williams dominates Sharapova's 2017 memoir Unstoppable: My Life So Far, published soon after the Russian returned from a drug suspension.
Their feud reached boiling point in 2013, when they publicly commented on the other's love lives - Sharapova was dating Grigor Dimitrov, who was rumoured to be Williams' ex-boyfriend.
If eight-seeded Williams beats Sharapova and subsequent opponents, she could meet top seed Osaka again in the final, as the pair are on opposite sides of the draw.
Last year's final ended in acrimony between Williams and chair umpire Carlos Ramos, after he gave her three code violations in the second set.
Williams has not played since retiring with a back injury in the final of the Rogers Cup in Toronto on August 11.
Sharapova, ranked 87th in the world, has also battled injuries this year and lost to Australian Ash Barty in the second round of the Cincinnati Masters last week.
Reuters
