Why the gloves are off for Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams Maria Sharapova has taken quite a shot at Serena Williams before Wimbledon. Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams are no fans of each other. ENVY was a favoured theme of Shakespeare and the brothers Grimm. The same obsessive emotion is behind the tempest of loathing between Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. Mutual dislike spilled forth when, after a bit of cattiness about their respective body shapes at the French Open, Williams and Sharapova started sniping about their private lives in the lead-up to Wimbledon. The Championships begin today with Sharapova having publicly introduced the elephant in the room on the women's tour: that for all the whooping of delight about the success of Williams's professional and personal relationship with Patrick Mouratoglou, the wife and children of the French coach are notably less thrilled about it. "If she (Williams) wants to talk about something personal, maybe she should talk about her relationship and her boyfriend that was married and is getting a divorce and has kids," Sharapova told a press conference at The All England Club. Right then and there, pins dropping like hand grenades, the gloves were off at the 127th edition of The Championships. It takes a lot to floor the hardened and brilliant scribes of the English sporting press, but Sharapova rendered a few of them speechless. Her remarks came after the interview had begun with harmless and mundane dialogue. Sharapova was asked about an interview Williams had done with Rolling Stone magazine. More than Williams's controversial comments about the 16-year-old victim in the Steubenville rape case, for which the American has since apologised and spoken to the family about, the question was in reference to Williams saying of Sharapova: "There are people who live, breathe and dress tennis. I mean, seriously, give it a rest. She begins every interview with 'I'm so happy. I'm so lucky' - it's so boring. She's still not going to be invited to the cool parties. And, hey, if she wants to be with the guy with a black heart, go for it. The guy accused of a darkened heart is Sharapova's boyfriend, Grigor Dimitrov. The Bulgarian player introduced Williams to Mouratoglou when her career hit the skids, while they were dating last year. Dimitrov sacked Mouratoglou as his coach when Williams joined their academy. Mouratoglou and his wife, Clarisse, have two young daughters. Rather than these relationships causing the rift, it has merely fuelled what was already a raging fire. At the heart of the matter is the kind of resentment more commonly seen in Hollywood, Bollywood and the corridors of a Californian high school when the most beautiful and powerful women on campus begin to clash. The truth is a fascinating psychological study. Williams dislikes Sharapova because no matter how many matches and titles the world No 1 wins, she can never be what she also pines to be: the most beautiful and glamorous figure in the sport. Sharapova loathes Williams because even though the Russian is the richest and one of the most alluring sportswomen in the world, the face of Porsche and Evian and the focus of countless magazine covers, she would swap it all to be the greatest female player who ever lived. Most athletes secretly wish to walk in another's shoes. But Williams and Sharapova have abandoned admiration for a deep-seated jealousy. They have not said a single word to each other in the locker room for about five years. The brothers Grimm wrote of envy in their most famous tale, but it would be wrong to cast Sharapova as Snow White in all of this. She's as ruthless as they come. Who's the fairest of them all? Probably Sam Stosur. Will Swanton is the author of The Slams: Inside The Locker Rooms On The World Tennis Tour. Published by Random House.