Serena Williams makes veiled dig at Maria Sharapova in open letter to her mother 

The hostile and fractious relationship between Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova on the court has been put on hold this season, due to their respective situations, but the simmering tensions between the two continue away from the game.

National Daily learnt that Williams gave birth to her first child, Alexis, less than a month ago, and has shared images and videos documenting her pregnancy on her social media channels.

Now she has taken time to pen an emotional open letter to her mother, tennis coach Oracene Price, and has shared her feelings with the world.

In Sharapova’s recently published memoir Unstoppable, she references Williams more than 100 times, with one comment remarking on the American’s “thick arms and thick legs”.

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While Williams appears to respond to that remark, she also talks about performance-enhancing drugs, a possible nod to Sharapova’s 15-month drugs ban National Daily learnt.

“It has been said that that I use drugs (No, I have always had far too much integrity to behave dishonestly in order to gain an advantage),” she wrote.

“It has been said I don’t belong in women’s sports — that I belong in men’s — because I look stronger than many other women do. (No, I just work hard and I was born with this badass body and proud of it).”

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