User:Avatar5991/WTA Big Three
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In tennis, the WTA Big Three is the three-way rivalry involving Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, Serena Williams of the United States of America and Maria Sharapova of Russia. They are considered to be one of the most dominant trios in women's tennis today.[1]
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Serena Williams started on the WTA Tour in 1998, followed by Maria Sharapova in 2003 and more recently Victoria Azarenka in 2006. Williams and Sharapova first met at Miami in 2004, Sharapova first met Azarenka at the 2007 Kremlin Cup and Williams and Azarenka first met at the 2008 Australian Open. Serena Williams leads her head-to-heads with Maria Sharapova 11–2[2] and Victoria Azarenka by 11–1,[3] whilst Azarenka leads Sharapova 7–5 in their head-to-head.[4]
The trio enjoyed a very dominant 2012 season, winning four of the Grand Slam titles during the year. Azarenka won her first Grand Slam title by defeating Maria Sharapova in the final of the Australian Open,[5] Sharapova won the French Open,[6] whilst Serena Williams won both Wimbledon[7] and the US Open, defeating Azarenka in the latter final.[8] Additionally, two of the three shared the four Premier Mandatory titles during the year, with Azarenka defeating Sharapova to win Indian Wells and Beijing and Williams defeating Azarenka to win Madrid (Miami was won by Agnieszka Radwańska). Additionally, all three reached the semi-finals at the 2012 WTA Tour Championships.
Since the 2011 French Open, at least one Grand Slam final has been contested by a member of the WTA's Big Three, with two of them being contested by two of the three (Azarenka vs. Sharapova at the 2012 Australian Open and Azarenka vs. Williams at the 2012 US Open).