The clay court season is heating up. Roger Federer and Serena Williams won the Masters/Premiere series titles in Madrid last week on a blue clay court. This week the world’s best are competing in Rome before heading to the French Open. Let’s recap what happened so far in the clay court season
Men’s Game
Monte Carlo
Rafael Nadal won an incredible 8th Monte Carlo Masters Title, defeating world number 1 Novak Djokovic in the finals 6-1 6-3.
Have A Look At Some Of The Highlights
Djokovic definitely wasn’t at his best in this match but Nadal also made a significant change to his strategy. He served a lot to Djokovic’s forehand with his first serves and he hit a lot more into the Djokovic forehand during rallies.
This is a much better strategy for him in my opinion than trying to open up the court by hitting angles to Djokovic’s backhand, which is what he did a lot in previous matches!
Madrid
The Madrid masters event was played on a blue clay court this year, which caused a lot of controversy. The players were not too happy about this change and it also turned out that the court was way too slippery, which really upset players like Nadal and Djokovic.
Roger Federer mastered the conditions better than the other guys and played some incredible Tennis in Madrid. He beat the hard-hitting Tomaz Berdych 3-6 7-5 7-5 and with this victory equaled Nadal’s record of 20 masters titles.
Roger has won 7 out of the last 10 tournaments entered at this point and is playing incredible Tennis. Nadal and Djokovic did not perform well in Madrid but that cannot be taken too seriously in my opinion since both players were very unhappy with the surface in Madrid. I am sure all three guys will show up in very strong form at the French Open and it will be an exciting tournament!
Women’s Game
Stuttgart
Maria Sharapova won the first premier level event on clay in Stuttgart this year. She played extremely well in the finals and beat Victoria Azarenka 6-1 6-4.
I watched the match and saw some significant improvements in Sharapova’s game compared to the two previous losses that she suffered against Azarenka this year. She served better and also played a little bit smarter with more spin at the right times!
Madrid
Serena Williams surprised a lot of people with her dominant finals victory against world number 1 Victoria Azarenka in Madrid. Serena won 6-1 6-3 and played phenomenal Tennis. She also beat Maria Sharapova with the exact same score in an earlier round
The conditions did favor her game and it will be very interesting to see how well she plays at the French Open!
It appears like Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka, and Maria Sharapova are the players with the best chances going into the French Open right now!
