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)
I had high hopes for this final but it was really disappointing. Serena played very well, but Azarenka was poor throughout and served especially badly, which is something you cannot get away with against Serena.
All the big finals this year have been so one sided. The tightest one was the Radwanska/Sharapova Miami final which was still two sets and far from a classic. Glad to see the back of Madrid this year and looking forward to Rome and hoping for some exciting matches, which were few and far between in Madrid!
Humiliating loss for Azarenka,really. She did not look like a world no.1, had no fighting spirit or drive to even challenge Serena.
I think it’s pretty clear that she is not the main favourite for Roland Garros with this kind of approach to big matches.
Serena prooves that when she is healthy no one can stop her … in 4 words :” she is the best”
I’m not a general Serena’s fan,but this was a brilliant performance 🙂 Vika had no chances,and her serve was a complete mess :O
This match highlighted the fact that Serena Williams is in a different league from every other woman on the tour. She handled both the overhyped no.1 and no.2 players in the world by the same scoreline and by a similar humiliating manner. However, this tournament is far from an indicator for Roland Garros; the slippery courts, altitude, and sunny weather is not a good indicator for the somewhat damp and sluggish French clay. Regardless, the WTA is so unpredictable that we’ll just have to wait and see.
Serena just walked through the tournament, without much fuss or struggle, that’s what makes her victory ever bigger.
She played just 5 tournaments this year and won 2! You can hate her for not playing more, but you can’t deny her ability to brush everyone aside when she’s on, and she often is.
Serena is a true champ.when she is at her best,fit and at the right frame of mind.every other player will have to be very careful,regardless the rankings. Go on princess.
Same as Dusan, I’m not big fan of Serena but yeah, that was BIG. Actually, if Serena continue the way she is now, I feel that I’m gonna become her fan. Not because of her tennis, that part was always great, but because of her attitude. In the past she was sometimes displaying the kind of behavior that I find unacceptable on the court and unbecoming of a real champion. But now? She was amazing, both tennis-wise and attitude-wise.
And I agree with Ella, when healthy, Serena is a completely different league then anyone on the tour right now.
We’re gonna see what happens in Rome and especially, in Paris 🙂
Serena’s has already proved herself this season, but if she wins on red clay as well, even more so, if she wins Roland Garros, oh that would be a blow in the face to so many fans who don’t like to favor her.
Maggie: Whenever I, as you do, feel a nudge toward liking Serena’s “new attitude”, I remind myself of the fact that we’ve seen it before: she has tried it on (!) more than once since that terrible incident with the poor lines-woman at the US Open, and it fell off her at any instance of real importance since… Remember the old saying about the wolf in sheepskin?
Marija: Um, “a blow in the face to so many fans who don’t like to favor her”… Some heavy language there (and light grammar – at least for a linguist -, if I may say so). Rather confusing (because confused) too: I, for instance, “don’t like to favor her” and yet I’m sure that, should she win RG, my face won’t be swollen, red, green or black-and-blue from the slapping impact of such outcome. Oh well, perhaps it’s just me (not being one of said “so many” fan[atic]s of whom- or whatever).
Tulp, I like your euphemistic “light grammar” expression 🙂 You know why I’m saying that, and I strive to be objective – people often deny Serena’s brilliant capabilities because of the other things they don’t like about her (her behavior, her sporadic appearance at tournaments, etc.), but so often her tennis and her determination are unbeatable and that’s why she’s an ever-present star and champion.