The heat wasn’t just emanating from the Wimbledon courts in 2013. A simmering rivalry between tennis titans Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova boiled over into a public feud, adding a layer of off-court drama to the prestigious championship.

Roger Federer once declined to share his opinion on Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova’s public feud during the 2013 Wimbledon Championships.

Williams and Sharapova’s contentious on-court rivalry often extended beyond the court as well, manifesting in the duo taking public jabs at each other through the media.

During an interview with Rolling Stone in 2013, Serena Williams was quoted talking to her sister Venus Williams and about a “top-five player who is now in love.”

She criticized the player in question for offering the same “boring” platitudes in every interview and made a cryptic reference to her dating the “guy with the black heart,” widely interpreted as a dig at Maria Sharapova’s relationship with Grigor Dimitrov.

“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,” she said.

Sharapova responded to the American’s remarks during a press conference at Wimbledon 2013, pointedly bringing up Williams’ apparent relationship with a divorced man who had a daughter.

“I have a great deal of respect for Serena and for what she managed to win. However, I think she should talk about her successes, rather than the whole rest,” Sharapova said.

“If she wants to talk about something personal, she could tell us about the relationship with a man who once divorced and who now also has a daughter. She could tell us this and not things that don’t concern her,” she added.

In the context of his own cordial and respectful relationships with arch-rivals Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, Roger Federer was asked for his take on Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova’s feud during his press conference at SW19.

However, the Swiss refused to comment on the situation, saying that he hadn’t followed the entire saga.

“I mean, I didn’t follow it all. And I’m not going to comment on it because that’s their little thing going on, so. … That’s really it,” Federer said.