Se-reign-a!
Serena Williams beat Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-4 in the final of the Madrid Open on Sunday to both retain her no. 1 ranking and collect her 50th career title. The second-ranked Russian would have overtaken the top spot with a win, but Serena stormed out to an early lead as Sharapova struggled with her serve.
Sharapova briefly recovered her poise in the second set, but Serena’s form never dipped as she eased to the title.
“It feels good,” Serena said about reaching her 50th title. “I don’t know how many more I can win. Who knows if I will ever win another title? I just want to live the dream. Hopefully I can keep it going.
“When you first start out everything is so exciting. Now I expect to win.”
Serena improved her record against Sharapova to 13-2, with her only two losses coming in 2004.
The 31-year-old Serena, playing in her first red clay final since 2002, dominated Sharapova from the start as the Russian never managed to steady her erratic serve.
“I started the match really slow and against an opponent like her you can’t give her that,” said Sharapova, who had won her previous seven red-clay finals.
“I wasn’t reacting well. I wasn’t moving well. Not only the double faults I made, I didn’t have a lot of great first serves in. She was really stepping up.”
Sharapova committed five double faults in her first three service games, dropping the first two as Serena eased to a one-set lead. Her shaky serve let Serena gear up and land several winning shots before closing out the first set with a floating return that clipped the line.
Serena said the move back to red clay meant the tournament was a good warm-up for the French Open starting at the end of the month.
“This court is definitely different,” she said. “It plays like Roland Garros and that is a plus. So I think it is great preparation.”
Nadal seals fifth title of year
Rafael Nadal sealed his fifth title in seven tournaments since returning from a seven-month injury layoff as he claimed a third Madrid Masters title with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Stanislas Wawrinka on Sunday.
Nadal, who now holds a 9-0 career record over the Swiss, rolled through the first set thanks to two early breaks in little over half an hour.
And after a little more resistance from Wawrinka in the second, Nadal broke again to go ahead 4-3 before serving out to claim his 23rd Masters Series title.
Nadal now has 55 career titles with 40 coming on clay.
“The truth is that I am very happy and perhaps this victory is even more special where we have come from,” he said afterwards.
“Last season was a difficult season and to play for me was a dream.
“This is the most aggressive I have been in a match.
“I think these have been intense matches in which I have been able to play well and thanks to this excellent crowd it has been easier.”
In the men’s doubles final, Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan from the US defeated Alexander Peya of Austria and Brazil’s Bruno Soares 6-2, 6-3.
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