Forgive the rather technical title of this post as I will get to its meaning in a bit, but suffice to say I will cover the men's and ladies finals from the Italian open today, so let's give them a look.
The first final of the day was a much anticipated one between Serena Williams the current world No.1, and Victoria Azarenka, former No.1 and now No.3, which promised to be quite a cracker in itself. The match itself didn't quite live up to those expectations, but it was actually a surprisingly competitve one giving the scoreline, as in the first set Serena dominated Azarenka on serve, with Vika only winning one game from a break on Serena's serve, other than that she failed to hold serve in the first set, but there several tight duece games in the opening set as Serena met with some stern resistance from Vika throughout. In the 2nd set Victoria did a better job of holding onto her serve as she had to battle through a couple of tough service holds, however it wasn't long before Serena nabbed the crucial break to go 4-2 up and from there she never looked back and closed out the match to claim her 51st career title with a 6-1, 6-3 victory.
As I said the scoreline of this match really betrayed what the two women had on court, particularly in the first set where Azarenka took Williams to deuce several times throughout and they both played some excellent rallies. But it was Serena that proved to be utterly indomitable in the end as she played at her defensive best and showed she is a class above everyone else in the game just now. Serena has also extended her winning streak up to 24 matches, which is the longest one she has put together so far in her career (two shorter than Azarenka last year) and she stands as the absolute favourite to win the French open now. Although she was also the favourite last year and she went out in the 1st round, but if that doesn't happen this time round then I can possibly see her carry on to win the title there as well, which could see her put her winning streak carry on all the way past Wimbledon.
As for Victoria well she put up a good fight in the end, and she did well enough to hang in as long as she could, and it was good to see her get back on form after a ropey spell last week in Madrid. But clay is easily Azarenka's worst surface so I think it will be tough for her at the French to go any deeper than say the quarter or semi final, but we'll see how it goes for her, and she has had a good week in Rome despite her loss, it shows encouraging signs for her in the second major of the year.
Now onto the men's final which was a hugely anticipated match up between two of the biggest rivals in the game, Roger and Rafa. So this one promised much, but however in the end it delivered very little and from the get go Rafa was on absolute fire as he sped to a double break lead against his old rival who had no answer at all to him. In the 2nd set it was more of the same as Roger struggled badly on serve and Rafa's dominance continued and once again he sped to a double break 5-1 lead. But on serving for the title, Rafa put in a poor service game and let Roger back in the door slightly as he broke back and went on to hold to make it 5-3. But it was only a temporary blip as Rafa had no trouble in serving it out a second time and he sealed the deal in just over an hour with an emphatic score of 6-1, 6-3.
The problem with hugely anticipated matches is that at times they can fall flat on their face and this certainly was the case today, as it was a big letdown that Roger was unable to get anything going against his old rival. But with each passing final Rafa is looking better and better on court, and after his two epic tussles early on against Enerst Gulbis and particularly David Ferrer, it suprising to think this is the same player and by the time he reaches the final, Rafa has totally raised his game to another level altogether. And I really do think that despite Djokovic's chances, that Rafa will win the French open yet again this year, as with each tournament he is getting better and better since his comeback. What's even more remarkable is that he reached the final of every tournament he has played since his return to the tour, and already he has won six titles this season out of eight finals (five of them being on the clay, and the other at Indian Wells, which was his first non clay title for nearly 3 years!). It also now sees Rafa continue to put the Masters title record beyond anyone else, as he has now 24 Masters titles to his name, and I'm sure there will be plenty more to come.
As for Roger well he did play really well this week and he looks more rejuvanted after a sluggish return in Madrid last week. But it is a little surprising the difference between Roger last year and this year, who was pretty dominant in 2012, but this year he has struggled up until now to reach a final. But I'm sure come the start of the French Open that Roger will look to up his level even more, and by the time he hits Wimbledon we might just have to watch out.
Anyway so that's it for now, next time I will report back on Andy Murray's progress and his decision to either play or not at the French Open next week, which he will make on Wednesday this week. And after that its all about the second grand slam of the season from Roland Garros.
Oh and to re-iterate the meaning of the title refers to each final in Rome having the same scorline for the winner 6-1, 6-3 (hence 1-3 for the loser), and Serena winning 24 matches in a row this season and Rafa now having won 24 Masters titles. So no need for answers on a postcard!
So that's it for now!
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