While our photographer Jimmie48 is already in Strasbourg, where so far he’s covered Friday’s and Saturday’s qualifying action and today the commencement of main draw matches, Maria Sharapova won the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome for the third time in her career, coming from a set down to defeat Carla Suarez Navarro in the final.
The 10th-ranked Suarez Navarro battled hard in the first two sets, but when Sharapova kicked into higher gear, the Spaniard ran out of energy. After taking the first set, Suarez Navarro hung in there all the way until 5-5 in the second set, but two games to finish things off was a big task for the Spaniard this time as Sharapova won eight straight games to take the match to the decider in which the five-five Grand Slam champion capitalized on her experience and her opponent’s weakness to clinch the title with a 4-6 7-5 6-1 victory.
Masha has now won 35 WTA titles in her career and ensured a return to No.2 in the rankings. (photo: Jimmie48)
MaSha always saves the best for last. I thought CSN would eventually upset Maria but the nerves and errors started creeping into her. Still a great week for Carla though. Top 8 seed and new career high of 8 in the world is not too bad after all. Maria does it again in style. It boosted her chances in defending her French Open title the week after Strasbourg and Nürnberg.
Emman Damian, it was a spectacular week for Carla. Despite her excellent form and attitude this season, we still knew that Masha was the favorite in this final. After all, she’s a five-time major champ for a reason. She can always resurrect, no matter how far behind her opponent she is at a moment.
Methinks CSN just ran out of gas. If she didn’t win that 2nd set to win the match, I knew Masha would roll. CSN had played so many 3 setters leading up to the final. And what’s with Masha at the trophy presentation? She didn’t even acknowledge CSN in her speech. (Carla praised Masha, btw.). It may have been that the interviewer kept breaking in to translate to the Italian crowd, and distracted her. I will give her the benefit of the doubt. And I hate to bring in men’s tennis, but Djokovic just looks unstoppable. I am pulling for him to win the French..I know he wants it sooooo bad. Methinks he will win the grand slam this year. And I was also impressed that during the trophy presentation at the Italian open, he spoke to the crowd in pretty good Italian!
Marija,
Maria’s French open dress as well as Vika’s apparel have been released!
It’s called the sailor moon dress, can you do a post on the other Nike looks?
Jim, Djokovic is the man, he’s such a role model. I’ve never heard anything bad about him, even from people who know him personally.
Holly, I will definitely write about the new Nike looks, but tomorrow. They have still not been released officially and I have to have the permission to post. Brands have some strategies about their release dates… I’ve seen the promo pics, but not the close-up images of the items.