The defending champion was made to sweat by Slovenia's Katarina Srebotnik in the third round of the women's singles at Wimbledon.
'It's sad that I'm here protesting the same thing that she did 50-plus years ago'
The 17-year-old withdrew from next week's JP Morgan Chase Open following her unexpected victory at Wimbledon.
Maria Sharapova edged out Samantha Stosur 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 to reach the quarter-finals of the DFS Classic grass court tournament
Serena will be chasing her seventh grand slam title on Saturday against a 17-year-old who has taken her second Wimbledon by storm.
Sharapova beat Lindsay Davenport while the defending champion beat Amelie Mauresmo in the women's singles semi-finals at Wimbledon.
A preview of the Ladies semi-finals at Wimbledon.
Justine Henin-Hardenne fought from a match point down to beat Svetlana Kuznetsova and set up a clash with Maria Sharapova
Amelie Mauresmo will play Russian Vera Zvonareva in the semi-final of the Rome Masters
The Belgian injured her right leg in an awkward slide to the net during a third-round match against Switzerland's Patty Schnyder.
The Belgian claimed her second successive claycourt title when she beat Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final of the Warsaw WTA event.
Leading Russians, third seed Anastasia Myskina and fourth seed Nadia Petrova, tumbled out in the Rome Masters.
Roger Federer hasn't won a Grand Slam title this year but the 17-time Grand Slam champion tops Forbes magazine's list of the 10 top tennis moneymakers, announced on Tuesday.
Maria Sharapova has been left out of Russia's Fed Cup first-round tie against Italy later this month because of her hectic tournament schedule
Belgium's Kim Clijsters downed Maria Sharapova 6-3, 7-5 to win the Nasdaq-100 Open and claim her second consecutive title
Safin was followed through the exit door at the Nasdaq Open by fifth-seeded Spaniard Carlos Moya.
While Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova was buried 6-0, 6-0 by Lindsay Davenport in the semi-finals.
