Olympic Tennis Results 2012: Serena Becomes Olympic Legend After Dominating Win

Winning her first singles gold medal was impressive enough, but the way Serena Williams did it will put her in the annals of history as a true Olympic legend.

Simply put, Serena put forth the most dominating performance in Olympic tennis history, defeating Maria Sharapova 6-0, 6-1. 

These Games have already been full of dominating performances, perhaps none more prominent than team USA's flattening of Nigeria in men's basketball.

Serena's performance tops them all, however, as that level of dominance in a championship match is just unheard of.

Her dominance began early, as she easily dispatched Jelena Jakovic and Urszula Radwanska.

As her opponents got tougher, Serena simply got better. She continued to flatten opponents, never allowing an opponent to win more than three games in a set.

All of this culminated in Serena's gold medal performance against Sharapova.

Having just completed a career grand slam, Sharapova was riding high heading into the London Games, and she had reason to be confident heading into the championship game.

Serena quickly quashed any hope for Sharapova, smashing aces and avoiding errors.

Tennis fans observing the game were left disappointed at the lack of competition, but this match will go down as one of the most important in Olympic history.

First of all, Serena became only the second woman to ever earn a career grand slam and an Olympic singles gold medal, along with Steffi Graf.

A look at the stats shows that Serena's performance was truly unique.

Sharapova had no chance with Serena's intense focus and grit leading the way. Even the blustering wind was not enough to faze Serena, who's shots seemed unaffected.

All in all, no performance will be remembered as being more dominant than Serena's victory over Sharapova. To win so easily against one of the world's top players is truly the stuff of legend.