Rrrrrrrrighty that's the men's final over with at the Mutua Madrid Open, which was between Roger Federer, and the World No.7, Tomas Berdych, so here's alot more on that.
As this was the men's final, and with two such great players in it, it promised to be a good one, and thankfully it was almost certainly that, as the two guys battled it out for the right to win the trophy. From the onset however, Berdych looked the sharper player, as he immediately broke Federer's serve, and went 3-0 up. Federer managed to get himself on the scoreboard, keeping it to the single break, but Berdych has little trouble serving out the 1st set. In the 2nd, it was Federer's turn to go a break up, but at 4-2, Berdych broke back to level the match until 6-5, Berdych double faulted to hand the set over to Federer. And in the final set, again Berdych dropped his serve to make it 5-3, but he broke back straight away and levelled the plane field, until yet again at 5-6, on Berdych's serve, he finally capitulated to hand Roger his 20th Master 1000 series title, and his 4th title of the year, as well as also finally overtaking Rafa in the rankings for the first time in many a moon in making the World No.2 again. The final score after nearly 2 hours and 40 minutes reading 3-6, 7-5, 7-5.
This really was a terrific end to what was actually a very good tournament, albeit a highly controversial one, because of the newly coloured blue clay. And after the very disappointing ladies final, they saved the best for last, as both Fed and Berdych put on a high quality display for the packed Manolla Sontana stadium court. Berdych at quite a few times in the match was the better player, but when it came to playing those big pressure points, he came up a bit short, and it was ultimately Federer's experience that got him through. And yet again its testament to Roger's amazing ability to adapt to any court, any surface, and given his age at 30, when most players are winding down, that he is still able to compete at the highest level of the sport. Right now, this year on the ATP tour, Roger has been playing some of the best tennis he has played in years, and while so far it has eluded at the grand slam level, he may yet have another slam under his belt. He is also getting closer to realising his main goal to become the World No.1, as he has now moved up to the No.2 spot, toppling Rafa, who will now for the first time in ages be ranked at the World No.3. And while Serena Williams criticised the men's players for having a poor attitude towards the blue clay and complaining about it, which was a fair point, at least the men's final was an actual match, as opposed to the ladies final, which was just a massive letdown and was no more than a warm up for her.
However with Rome just round the corner Rafa might be able to snatch that ranking back off Federer, should they meet, so this clay trophy might just be a one off, but it does send out a signal to the other two guys, as he coped with a surface they couldn't, so its says alot for him. So it will be pretty exciting to see what lies ahead in Rome when Federer will most likely compete with Djokovic or Nadal, should he get that far, as so far, the finals he has reached have all been without them, so sooner or later he will face one of them.
Anyway so that's the Mutua Madrid Open tournament over, and it has been quite an interesting and (especially) colourful one, whether or not the clay will remain blue or not, next year, remains to be seen. Manollo Sontana has so far said that he intends to keep the blue clay this year, as he will put on a Challenger series event later in the year to see how it plays out, but he might be keeping the top two guys away from it next year should it still be around.
Sooooo that's it for now. More to come on the next ATP/WTA event in Rome.
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