Olympic Tennis - Serena Williams vs. Maria Sharapova (14:00 BST)

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by Crunch Sports Staff

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Serena Williams (credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

Serena Williams takes on Maria Sharapova this afternoon in the women's singles gold medal match at the London 2012 Olympic Games (14:00 BST start).

Going into the London Olympics, Serena and Sharapova were the only players in the field to have achieved the legendary career Grand Slam. Williams achieved the feat back in 2002, while Sharapova completed the set in June. As such it seems only right that they're battling it out in today's final, with the winner achieving the career Golden Grand Slam.

Steffi Graf, who won all four slams and Olympic gold back in 1988, is the only other player to have managed this.

Serena is the bookmakers' favourite to win what will be her first singles gold medal (she's won two doubles golds with her sister Venus), and rightfully so given her progress through the draw so far this week. The American has yet to concede more than three games in a set and she's destroyed Vera Zvonareva, Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka on her way to today's final at Wimbledon.

Given how good those players are - they've all reached Grand Slam finals - for Serena to beat them all dropping just seven games across the three matches, is simply remarkable.

Sharapova will do well not to get obliterated and going by her head-to-head record against Serena, she faces an uphill task. Serena has won eight of their ten matches and has won the last seven in a row.

However, the run has got to end at some point and what better time than an Olympic final?

Prediction: Serena in two.

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