Serena Williams Beats Maria Sharapova For Gold Medal In Women's Singles At 2012 London Olympics

Tennis sisters Serena Williams and Venus Williams have won Olympic doubles twice before, and are going for the win again this afternoon, but No.4-seeded Serena just took home her first singles gold at Saturday's match against Russian Maria Sharapova — becoming the second woman and fourth person after Steffi Graf, Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal, to achieve a Career Golden Slam thanks to an astonishing 6-0, 6-1. ‘‘I was so focused here,’’ Williams said. ‘‘I remember I was serving and I was thinking: ‘Serena, this is your best chance to win a gold medal. You’re at Wimbledon, you’re on grass, you play great on grass, pull it together, just win this.’ And that’s what I thought about," Williams told CBS.

No.3-seeded Sharapova completed her own Grand Slam at the French Open earlier this summer, but Williams had no trouble competing. Williams delivered full force swings and serves, preventing Sharapova from even winning a game until well into the match. ‘‘She’s playing incredibly confident tennis. Her shots were very powerful," Sharapova said. Still, Williams didn't let her guard down. ‘‘Against Maria, if you give her any hope, she’s trying to come back,’’ Williams said. ‘‘She won that one game and I could see her pumping her fist, and I was like, ‘Oh boy, here she comes.’ It was really important for me to almost go out there and just do everything.’’ Williams' most recent success crowns a long run of wins by the tennis star, who lost only 17 games in six matches leading up to her gold medal and won her fifth Wimbledon title barely a month ago.

But it was Williams' victory dance that stole the show. ‘‘I don’t think I've ever danced like that,’’ Williams said. ‘‘I don’t even know where the dance came from.’’ Even rapper Snoop Lion, formerly Snoop Dogg, was impressed by Williams' moves. "Sho[u]t out to Serena williams. C walking at the Olympics Cpt style hahahahah! Go girl," he tweeted.