In the first set of the second-round meeting between Nadia Petrova and Serena Williams at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, Petrova seemed to be striding towards ending Williams' winning streak on clay, but already in the beginning of the second set the momentum changed in the dramatic fourth game and the American marched on to grab her 15th straight win.

In the beginning of the match Petrova was confident on her shots, especially on serve, never facing a break opint, and an early break of Williams earned her the first set. Until 1-1 in the second set, Williams was inferior, as Petrova lost just six points in her six service games. And in the following game things looked to be going the Russian's way, as she had an opportunity to break Serena to love! But Petrova's nerves and errors and Serena's determination clashed and the American held her serve after saving five break points. Since then the set was all hers, even though she dropped serve in the seventh game. In the third set both players held their serves until the eighth game when Serena struck again and then served out for the match. Final score: 4-6 6-2 6-3.

The ninth-seeded Williams will next play Anabel Medina Garrigues, who had an easy passage into the third round when Caroline Wozniacki retired trailing 4-6 0-4, stating upper respiratory illness. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Maria Sharapova has had a very good stretch on clay and extended it today with a 7-5 7-5 victory over Christina McHale in the second round of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia. The Russian has won 17 of her last 19 matches on clay, and those wins include the 2011 Rome and 2012 Stuttgart titles.

Her opening match in Rome this year was a tricky affair, as the second-seeded Sharapova trailed in both sets, especially in the first set when she had to recover from a 4-1 deficit, overcoming numerous unforced errors. The victory came after two hours and 12 minutes. Read more »

This Monday world No.11 Angelique Kerber overtook Andrea Petkovic as the highest-ranked German player and started off the Rome tournament with a victory over Anastasia Rodionova, a hard-fought one, though. Seed No.12 Kerber worked her way back from a set down and early breaks in both the second and third set to finally defeat qualifier Rodionova 4-6 7-5 6-2.

Another high-profile German was in action today – Julia Goerges overcame qualifier Aleksandra Wozniak in three sets 6-1 6-7(1) 6-3, but after missing a match point in the second set.

The dramatic windy day on the clay of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia also featured a clash of two Grand Slam champions, even better, the French Open champions – Ana Ivanovic and Svetlana Kuznetsova. Ivanovic produced a fine performance to defeat Kuznetsova 6-4 6-3, performing 100% on the conversion of the five break points she had.

There was another French Open champion in action on the first day of Rome – No.10 seed Francesca Schiavone – but the Italian No.1 ended up as the only seeded casualty of the day, falling to Ekaterina Makarova 6-3 6-4. (via WTA Tour, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Red clay, green clay, blue clay – it's all the same for Serena Williams, even though it's her least favorite surface. The American became the first champion on the infamous blue clay by demolishing world No.1 Victoria Azarenka in the final of the Mutua Madrid Open.

The top-seeded Azarenka finished the first set with a double fault and the match with an awkward missing of the ball and that can pretty much sum up the short Madrid final which lacked in competitiveness and rallies. In the third game of the match, trailing 0-2, Azarenka made three double faults to drop serve again and then quickly go even further down, 0-4, before winning her first game, which didn't mean much as Serena soon won the set 6-1. The second set was not a very different story, only that Azarenka won two more games. Final score: 6-1 6-3.

Serena hit 14 aces to Azarenka's zero! And Azarenka had only six winners in the entire match, compared to Williams' 26. Moreover, Williams won an astonishing 91% points on first serve, while Azarenka won 63%.

All in all, Serena stormed through the tournament to stay unbeaten in her last 13 matches on clay, losing a set only to Caroline Wozniacki in the Madrid quarterfinals. Besides Wozniacki and Azarenka, Serena also defeated Elena Vesnina, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, second seed Maria Sharapova and Lucie Hradecka en route to the Ion Tiriac trophy and $631,000 in prize money. The Mutua Madrid Open title is Serena's 41st career title! (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

At the Mutua Madrid Open, world No.105 Lucie Hradecka was enjoying the best tournament of her career, with landmark victories over defending champion and world No.4 Petra Kvitova in the second round and world No.5 Samantha Stosur in the quarterfinals, her first Top 10 wins, and even in the semifinal against Serena Williams, which the Czech qualifier entered after spending a total of nine hours playing matches on the courts of Madrid this year, Hradecka went shoulder to shoulder with the American, before one double fault determined Serena as the winner of the first set, and soon after the match.

Both Hradecka and Williams are big and solid servers and that's what translated into this match. Only in her main draw matches, Hradecka hit 57 aces (Williams' score is 41)! Neither Hradecka nor Williams dropped serve in the first set. Serena did have two break points at 4-3, but Hradecka confidently saved both. Also, at 6-5 Serena earned two set points, but again Hradecka was strong. In the tiebreak Hradecka made a fatal double fault to hand Serena another chance to win the set, which the American used and from then on the match was absolutely hers. In the second set Hradecka won a total of just six points! Final score: 7-6(5) 6-0.

Williams is now 12-0 on clay this year, losing just one set in those 12 matches, and the player standing between her and her 41th WTA title is world No.1 Victoria Azarenka, who defeated third-ranked Agnieszka Radwanska for the sixth straight time this year, 6-2 6-4! (photo: © Neal Trousdale)