If this tale of the two shrieking blondes with the heavy baseline games had been written a year or two ago, the critical comparison would have been mental.
For all her shoulder issues and serving yips, Maria Sharapova was always known as one of the sport's steeliest competitors; for all her talent, volatile Victoria Azarenka was, well, not.
''Her forehand would break down, her serve would get slightly tight, and her attitude would explode,'' doubles star turned commentator Rennae Stubbs said. ''I mean, she would have exploded so many times in that semi-final, the old Azarenka. But everybody in the locker room knows now she's not exploding, the forehand is so solid, she's hitting the ball unbelievably, so therefore where do you go?
''There's no weakness in her game that you can pinpoint any more, and that's what makes great players, what makes Grand Slam champions. Vika has weapons and she controls herself. Maria has weapons, and she controls herself.
''So toss a coin.''
The pair have split their six career meetings, with two apiece on hardcourts. None has been in a major, although Azarenka has won both finals, in Stanford and Miami.
Sharapova has the clear edge in experience, for the Belarusian's debut Slam decider is the Russian's sixth, yet first in Melbourne since the then 20-year-old won her third major title in 2008.
Azarenka, too, was an early starter, winning both her first junior Slam and maiden senior title in Australia. But it has taken the 22-year-old six full years on the tour to reach this point, with the help of greater discipline and an intense fitness campaign directed by her coach of two years, Sam Sumyk, as well as, apparently, the perspective from what Martina Navratilova has attributed to an ''a ha'' moment at home in Belarus.
It involved Azarenka's elderly grandmother, who worked until the age of 71.
''We had to make her sign a paper that she's going to give up her job,'' the third seed recalled this week.
''We actually had to do that, because she would get up at five in the morning and still go to work.
''It was already pissing me off so much. I'm like 'can you do something else? Can you just relax? I don't know, let's go to the spa.'
''She was like, 'oh, but I don't know what to do. I want to do something'. And then she comes to my house and she starts to clean or starts doing something. I say, 'just sit, sit and relax'.
''It's just amazing to see how much people work, and we are here playing tennis and sometimes complaining about little things.
''It was just kind of a little bit stupid for me to worry about, 'Oh, my God.
''I lost a tennis match. So what?' I mean, life goes on and you keep going. It's just a tennis match. You have to look at the big picture.''
Yet if that anecdote paints the sometimes ill-mannered Azarenka in a rosier light than she is viewed by many in the sport, then Sumyk also uses a broad brush to sketch her biggest advancements on the court.
''Everywhere,'' the Frenchman said. ''Physically, her tennis ... the way she copes with herself and situations is improving, so it's a little bit everywhere. It's hard to pull out one thing - it's the whole package.''
The 22-year-old admits her biggest challenge has been cooling a mind that is sometimes ''boiling'' and learning to hold herself together in the moments when ''you have somebody on the opposite side that is making you a little bit crazy''.
For Sharapova, in contrast, what started with a rush was slowed and then seriously threatened by a shoulder injury that required surgery in 2008. The superstar's ranking fell to 126th the following year and doubt started to creep in.
''As positive as I always try to be, you always question what you're doing, obviously, because sometimes things work out and sometimes they don't,'' Sharapova said.
''And especially just with the shoulder I knew some examples of some people that did not quite recover from surgery and that was a little frightening, but I really had no option.''
And nor did the frustrations ever threaten to defeat her.
''It's the way my career path has gone, and I don't regret anything that has happened,'' she said. ''Obviously it would have been nice not to have a serious injury at 21 years old, but sometimes it's just the way things go.''
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