The Battle of Great Tennis

What great tennis we have enjoyed this weekend, on one hand, the great final of the Masters Series in Rome; a little more than 5 hours of emotion and ecstacy in which both gladiators extended themselves with some magnificent tennis. We were not wrong when we predicted that it would be one of those finals where the players would have to fight it out right till the last point on the Roman red clay, and these two men of tennis, exhausted by the physical and mental effort that this final took, have declined to participation in the Masters Tennis Series of Hamburg.

The result that we saw - a glorious victory for Rafael Nadal and a glorious defeat of Roger Federer on the court of Foro Italico. It has been a very long time since we saw Federer have to battle so hard on a tennis court and as glorious a defeat that it was for Federer, it added even more to the achievment and to the historical significance of the young Spaniard, Rafael Nadal. Reports of this great match will indeed go down in the record books, newspapers, blogs and forums - as much for the feelings and the heart-warming beauty of the sport, as well as for the outstanding result.

Nadal now equals the record of Guillermo Vilas for 53 consecutive victories on the clay courts, besides also equaling Borg in titles gained by players younger than 20 years, with 16 titles; on another note, Roger Federer equals Vilas in the number of reached consecutive finals of the era open with 13. Federer is only 5 finals away from reaching the record of Ivan Lendl, the highest consecutive finals reached in the open era with 18.

This weekend's final on red clay has shown that Roger Federer, now more than ever, is closer to obtaining his Parisien dream. With a few small adjustments and with the help of his trainer Tony Roche, Federer is a great favorite to raise a glass in Roland Garros, but the clear favorite is still the red clay king himself, Rafa Nadal.



On the women's side, this weeks sensational victory went to Nadia Petrova, who defeated Henin-Hardenne in the final of the Berlin Open, winning her third title, in a match that lasted almost 3 hours.

The runner-up Henin Hardenne, su gozo en un pozo

Petrova ascends to No.3 in the new WTA rankings and becomes the best Russian of the moment, over Sharapova. On another note, the Chinese players Yan/Zheng scored another victory in the doubles final with a win over doubles team Dementieva/Pennetta, adding even more success to the emerging Chinese women of the tennis.

Nadia Petrova

This week the WTA now goes onto play in Rome and the ATP to Hamberg, we hope that in the next week we will go on to enjoy even more great tennis.

Rankings:

Sony Ericsson
WTA Tour Singles
Rankings
(as of May 15, 2006)

Race to the Sony Ericsson
WTA Tour Championships
Singles Standings
(as of May 15, 2006)

INDESIT ATP Rankings (as of May 15, 2006)



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