The American has strung together an 18-match winning streak against her opponent that dates back to 2005. Hype around the contest has been building and led to the most unusual exchange between Williams and an unidentified reporter at a press conference in Paris on Saturday. The reporter acknowledged Williams must want to get back to her daughter but asked her to "work with me here, please". "We're in this together, baby," he said, to which Williams replied: "No we're not; you're not going home to a screaming baby." Maria Sharapova. Credit:AP

Undeterred, the reporter went on to tell Williams he'd been waiting "about 14 years to ask you this question". "After the 2004 Wimbledon match with Maria, I had the opportunity to interview Donald Trump on his [Los Angeles] golf course, and he said that Maria's shoulders were incredibly alluring and then he came up with this extraordinary analysis: That you were intimidated by her supermodel good looks. "My question is: Have you ever been intimidated by anyone on a tennis court, and what are your thoughts about the occurrence?" Williams responded: "I honestly don't have any thoughts about that. I can't say I have been intimidated by anyone. Maria Sharapova suggested in her autobiography that Serena Williams was traumatised and still driven by her loss to the Russian at Wimbledon in 2004. Credit:Photographic

"That's all. That's it." A clearly unimpressed Williams also levelled criticism at Sharapova for appearing to take credit for the American's winning streak in her autobiography. The Russian suggested in the book her rival was so traumatised by her loss to the then-17-year-old in the 2004 Wimbledon final she cried, and was still driven by the defeat. "The book was 100 per cent hearsay, at least all the stuff I read and the quotes that I read, which was a little bit disappointing," Williams said. "I have cried in the locker room many times after a loss, and that's what I have seen a lot of people do. It's normal. If anything, it shows the passion and the desire and the will that you have... to go out there and do the best. It's a Wimbledon final... it would be more shocking if I wasn't in tears.

"I think what happens there should definitely stay there and not necessarily (be) talked about in a not-so-positive way in a book." She also said the book was "a lot about me" and she was "surprised about that". "I didn't expect to be reading a book about me, that wasn't necessarily true. In response, Sharapova focused on the match ahead by saying: "There is a lot of things in her game that she's done much better than I have. Numbers don't lie. "Despite the record that I have against her, I always look forward to coming out on the court and competing against the best player."