Sunday 19 May 2013

Rome Round-Up: Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal triumphant again

Serena Williams
I was hoping today's finals would be competitive, but we saw two terrific performances from Serena and Rafa as they both completed the Madrid-Rome double.  Serena Williams was up first as she produced a clinical display to dispatch Victoria Azarenka, 6-1 6-3.  Serena hit a staggering 41 winners to just 19 unforced errors and will go into Roland Garros as the mahoosive favourite.  I thought Azarenka actually did pretty well and she needs more matches before she is back to her best.  Clay is not her best surface, but I still prefer her match-up with Serena over Maria-Serena on any surface.  Although Serena will be the big favourite, there will also be a lot of expectation and pressure so its NOT going to be a walk in the park by any means at the French.

The ATP final was equally one-sided as Rafael Nadal rather dismantled an error-leaking Roger Federer, 6-1 6-3.  The highlight of the match for me was a jaw dropping  Nadal backhand pass at 6-1 4-1 to get the break.  Federer did get one break back, but it was just delaying the inevitable.  Nadal goes into Roland Garros as the big favourite, but despite poor showings in Madrid and Rome, I still don't think Djokovic can be discounted.  We have two heavy favourites going into RG, but tennis is a funny game and i'm still weighing up my predictions, which will ALL depend on the draw.

It has been another superb week of tennis I am sure you will agree!  My previews for next week's tournaments will be posted tonight, but I will not be following the tournaments in much detail throughout the week as I want to recharge the blogging batteries for the busy weeks ahead.  I love doing my blog, but its been a bit hectic trying to keep up the last two weeks in around a full-time job! I hope you will continue to follow Moo's Tennis Blog as we move into the most exciting stage of the season.  I will post in the week about my blogging plans for the grass court season so stay tuned and spread the word to follow Moo :-)

3 comments:

  1. It seems that you favor Djoko over Nadal ever so slightly if they were to face each other? I can understand that. I'm kind of new to Tennis-following it up this close-used to only follow GS's. I agree with you,this is the most exciting part of the season!

    ReplyDelete
  2. check out Rome's Celebration final-Nadal's congrats to Federer-absolutely hilarious. They're all cracking up behind Nadal-including Fed. On another note check out the oncourt interview of Fed after the Janowicsz match-what a gentleman in defeat or loss! He's grown up and always had it in him to be such an elevated persona since his crying after his Aussie open loss (which is understandable and ineveitable-due to the HUGE massive pressure/expectations set upon him cuz he singelhandedly-backhand included-set the standards astronomically forward)

    ReplyDelete
  3. To be honest, I am 50-50 on Nadal-Djokovic. I think that Djokovic's performances over the last two weeks have been concerning, but I think he will come back strong in RG. Realistically, he is the only one who can stop Rafa.

    At this moment in time, I am siding with Rafa, but all could change when I come to make my predictions based on the draw, which should be fascinating!

    ReplyDelete