The professional rivalry between Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams extended beyond their on-court competition to expose fundamental contradictions in how the tennis industry evaluates, markets, and compensates its athletes. Their head-to-head record overwhelmingly favored Williams, who won twenty of their twenty-two career meetings, including a nineteen-match winning streak against Sharapova. Despite this competitive dominance and Williams' superior Grand Slam record, Sharapova maintained high