Serena Williams has been way beyond her competition and yet again, for who knows which time, she reaffirmed it by dominating Victoria Azarenka in the Internazionali BNL d’Italia final and winning her fifth title this season, the fourth consecutive (after Miami, Charleston and Madrid)!
The American is now heading to the French Open with almost perfect record on dirt since the start of the 2012 claycourt season – 33-1 – her only loss being the shocking upset by Virginie Razzano in the first round of the last French Open. This season she’s won 16 matches on clay and this week in Rome all the wins were in straight sets, actually she lost a total of just 14 games en route to the Premier-level title and 343,548 EUR prize, beating Laura Robson after a first-round bye, seed No.14 Dominika Cibulkova in the third round, Carla Suarez Navarro in the quarterfinals, the underdog story of the tournament Simona Halep in the semis and finally the third-seeded Azarenka 6-1 6-3, by serving the match out at love after earning a triple match point with back-to-back aces.
This is Serena’s 51st career title and her eighth on clay, which makes her the third active WTA player with the biggest number of claycourt titles, after leader Anabel Medina Garrigues (10) and sister Venus Williams (9). (photo: © Neal Trousdale)
She’s been on fire during this clay season. I think that Maria will have to play on a whole new level to even challenge Serena on Roland Garros.