All Paths Lead to ...

With his arduous, but intriguing 5-set defeat of Novak Djokovic in the semi-final on Friday Rafael Nadal booked his place in his 8th Roland Garros final. This time, facing his compatriot David Ferrer who found life a whole lot easier on the way to his maiden Slam final, winning every set he played and blowing over the uninspired, featherweight challenge of his semi-finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

With all the talk at the quarter final stage of the prevalence of beauteous one-handed backhands, and the increased average age of the men making up the final eight, there was a desire to see new names and different faces in the final four.  But the unfamiliar challenges drifted away and a largely predictable set of players contested the semi-finals.  Indeed had Tsonga not pulled out the performance of his tournament to defeat Federer in the quarters the two semi-finals would have been made up of the same four as they were in 2012.  And without meaning to belittle Ferrer's achievements in reaching his first Slam final at the age of 31, but inescapably doing so, it seems almost inevitable that Nadal will make history by lifting the Coude de Musketeers for the 8th time - the only man ever to win 8 times at a single slam.  Such is his record at Roland Garros (58 matches won, and a solitary blip in 2009 when Robin Soderling became the first and only man to beat Nadal at the event) that Ferrer's chances are at best slim, and more realistically none.  Such is the dominance of Rafa in Paris.

It is not just a convergence of the draw that has brought to Nadal to this stage yet again, but also the coming together of a comeback plan forced upon him by a chronic knee complaint exacerbated by a second round Wimbledon defeat last year.  His four months back on tour, that began in South America in February has taken him to a 36-2 win/loss record for the year, 6 titles and now the French Open final.  A series of wins that has seen him defeat the majority of the top ten in the ATP rankings, breaking a multitude of tennis records along the way.

Yet, for large parts of the comeback trail, critics have looked for ways to suggest that Nadal would not be able to successfully defend his Roland Garros title.  The final loss to Horacio Zeballos in his opening tournament in Chile, the loss of sets to top 100 journeymen such as Carlos Berlocq and perhaps the most significant defeat of the spring, that by Djokovic on clay in the final of Monte Carlo in April.  Such were the signs that Nadal still had ground to make up to be the indomitable force of clay court tennis that he had been for the best part of a decade.

Indeed, the suppositions continued into the French Open itself, when a shaky start from the Spaniard saw first Daniel Brands (in Round 1) then Martin Klizan (Round 2) take their opening set from Nadal.  Yet Nadal knuckled through the rest of those matches, and the remainder of the draw before the contest with Djokovic.  That intriguing and thrilling five set contest could have graced the final round of any tournament, but coming at the semi-final stage, only increased the heartbreak for Djokovic as the sole Slam title he is missing slipped from his grasp once again.  For Nadal, the contest may have tired him out, but, unfortunately for his opponent, shouldn't scupper his chances in the all-Spaniard dogfight.

For the last four months, all paths have led to this point for Rafael Nadal.  And the unalterable course of those paths seem to an 8th Roland Garros title for the Spaniard.

And So It Came to Pass

The best win every slam.

Legends win them all again.

So reads the commemorative Nike slogan for Serena Williams 64 64 defeat of [fellow-Nike juggernaut] Maria Sharapova in today's French Open final.  Having first won the title in 2002, she has completed her double career slam 13 tears later with her 16th top tier title.

Far from being the straight walkover anticipated by their previous recent meetings, Sharapova came out of the gate the quickest, holding off Serena from 0-40 in her opening service game before breaking the American's serve at the first opportunity after the change of ends.  It was the start that was needed to prevent the contest turning into another one of those one-sided Serena exhibitions, such as her mismatched semi-final against the flailing Sara Errani.  The sort of match where Serena racks up a two or three game cushion at the start of a set before romping home in record time.  However, Sharapova's early break soon willowed away, and Williams closed out the set with some battering-ram groundstrokes.

An early break for the American in the second set fairly sealed the encounter, Sharapova always playing catch-up but never looking as though she would crack Serena's fortitude.  And so the much-predicted outcome of the 2013 Women's Singles draw came to pass with a solid 64 64 victory over the second-ranked player in the world.

It is the latest chapter in the Serena Williams story, that fairly rounds off a comeback tale that began in 2011 after her injury-hiatus from the game.  After a much mulled over first round meltdown against an outsider in Paris last year, a new coaching entourage has pushed Williams to take top accolades in Wimbledon, London 2012, the US Open and Istanbul, in addition to numerous smaller events of the past 12 months.  With only 3 defeats blemishing her record, she has proved herself streaks ahead of the competition, playing virtually untouchable tennis, a dominant blend of power and athleticism, focus, drive and will-power.  Swinging freely with accurate consistency, the only player that came close to toppling her this tournament was Russian's Svetlana Keznetsova in the quarter-final,  Seemingly with little to lose, Kuznetsova rattled Serena's poise with some heavy, bullet groundstrokes of her own.  That she was unable to sustain the attack meant that Williams was the eventual winner.

If the 2013 runner-up Sharapova is to take any positives from her Roland Garros campaign, it is that she made it to the final of a Slam as a defending champion for the first time in her career.  Indeed, she would probably have successfully defended her title and ranking points were it not for Serena's entrance in the event - her semi-final against Victoria Azarenka and her quarter against Jelena Jankovic allowing her to prove her billing as the world #2..  She also can see the positive in the way she moved Serena around the court, and with a little more willingness to move forward after some of her more penetrating groundstrokes, she may even have pushed the tie to an altogether different conclusion.

Eventually Sharapova may work out a gameplan to consistently defeat Serena, toppling the queen from her towering throne. For now though, the legend continues.

Twice as Nice

Roland Garros is meant to be the 'odd one' on tour, the Open with the widest pool of potential winners, where upsets are the most likely to happen (Francesca Schiavone for example).  But with all the inevitability of a Manchester United Premier League trophy, the top two seeds, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova, have slunk through the draw to face off against each other in the final on Saturday.

Indeed, it seems as though French Open predictions have been floating around the tennis ether for three or four months now, and have particularly intensified when Serena racked up an impressive unbeaten run since Doha, and Sharapova consolidated her clay court 2012 with the title in Rome.  And of the pair, it is undoubtedly Serena who has continued to dominate the headlines in Paris, and tops many polls of likely champion on the weekend.

Yet, clay is a surface that Serena has historically struggled on.  A solitary French Open title, garnered in 2002, highlights a significant hole in her resume, and marks the one other time she has made the final of the event.  However, a 30 match win-streak has defined the first half of a 2013 season in which she has fairly devastated the rest of the WTA, in particular the top 10, with some dominant results.  This fortnight's Roland Garros has predominantly played out  to these expectations, with her only real test coming at the hands of former champ and injury-bedraggled battleaxe Svetlana Kuznetsova.  The hoodoo of multiple quarter-final exits seemed to prey on the American's mind as she slumped in the second set after breezing through the third.  And as the match progressed, it appeared to be Virginie Razzano all over again as Serena then went down a break in the decider.  However, the difference between the Serena of Roland Garros 2012 and the player who has dominated the tour since, is the steely determination, the supreme focus, and the hunger to lift herself out of the funk of momentum swings in matches.  Turning the final set of the quarter-final round took a mammoth amount of mental and physical strength, but one that Serena, under the watchful eye of her post-French coaching appointment Patrick Mouratoglou, seems to have copious reserves to mine.

From a break down in the final set, Serena snapped into place to brush away the Russian's challenge.  And the ensuing semi-final, against last year's runner-up Sara Errani, saw her most compelling performance of the championships.  A 46 minute match, she bulldozed the Italian with a 60 61 victory, dominant from start to finish to mete out the most one-sided French Open semi-final in the tournament's history.

It was in stark contrast to Sharpova's semi-final.  The Russian required 3 sets to break down the spirited defenses of the world #3 Victoria Azarenka, following on from the 3-setter that she played against the resurgent Jelena Jankovic in the quarters.  Arguably, these were the more tricky opponents that either finalist faced all week, and Sharapova handled the undulations of the games appropriately, exhibiting her improved movement on the surface.  However, she will still remain the outsider on Saturday, and will look not only to dam the 30 match win streak of the American, but also to put an end to her own personal record at the hands of Williams.

Sharapova has the ignominy of not beating Serena in 9 years, not since the YEC in 2004, the year she wrestled the Venus Rosewater trophy from the Williams sisters' grasp on a July Saturday at Wimbledon.  And while Sharapova has claimed three sets from Serena since the end of 2004, she has also ceded 24 to her opponent, some of those (like last year's Olympic final) have been as one-sided as Williams' routing of Errani on Thursday.

It is hard to see where, or indeed when, Sharapova will finally find a way to defeat Serena again, thus ending her 9-year 12-match losing streak.  The form of Williams alone would suggest that the Russian will be a mere bystander to the line-painting dominance of Serena.  Any below-par serving from Sharapova, an unfortunate characteristic of her tournament, will be pounced on by Serena, while the American's power should highlight Sharapova's clay court frailties.  Before the French Open began Serena Williams was the overwhelming favourite for trophy accolades on ladies finals day.  And nothing she has done throughout the tournament would suggest that she won't be the recipient of the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen for the second time in her career on June the 8th.

Identifying an Upset

With an unnerving degree of consistency, the WTA top 4 have all made it through their respective first week match-ups to contest the Roland Garros quarter finals over the next two days.

Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka and Agnieszka Radwanska are still on course to take the final four spots in the competition, mostly untroubled so far. However, some unexpected QF opponents suggest that this round will be decidedly tougher for the top ladies, and there may be one or two upsets over the course of the next two days.

Radwanska, current World #4, was many people's pick to fall early during the draw - struggling as she did last season on the clay, despite solid results in the first half of the season.  This year, she has failed to live up to the reputation of her 2012 spring, so appeared vulnerable in the RG draw.  However, she lucked out with the sorting hat, and fairy blew away her toughest competition to date, Ana Ivanovic in a highly efficient straight sets victory late on Sunday evening.  Yet to drop a set, Radwanska hasn't had to battle for a win yet.  However, her QF is undoubtedly the toughest of all the top 4 - facing last year's beaten finalist Sara Errani.  Errani is most reminiscent of a Wild West handcar - all graft, guts and grit to make her one of the hardest workers on tour.  Small in stature, the pace of the clay has allowed her to negate this to make her a specialist on the surface.  Injuries may have flared in her R16 match, but she should have the edge over Radwanska on the surface.  The Polish player may be the best defender on tour, but Errani has the guile to strategise a victory.

Prediction: Errani in 3

Azarenka - learning to love clay

Azarenka (3) is another player who previously lacked the necessary clay credentials to be considered a viable contender at this year's French Open.  Indeed, a lacklustre Madrid campaign in the run-up to the French Open would have gone some way to suggesting that the Belorussian would be better off waiting for the green of Wimbledon before attempting to regain her #1 ranking from Serena.  However, a final appearance at the following week's Rome tournament, during which she subdued clay specialists Errani and Sam Stosur in subsequent rounds, and her run to the quarter finals this fortnight in Paris have pushed her back up the contender list once again.  Her R16 victory, against the ageing former champion Francesca Schiavone, was as clinically efficient as it was ruthless.  The #3 seed had too much power and consistency to be troubled by Schiavone's tactical spin game.  After an early loss of serve, Azarenka blasted through the next 9 games to take the tie 63 60.

It was a performance that fairly threw Azarenka's name back in the hat, at the very least as a finalist.  Tasked with taking on Vika's renewed confidence are two potential Russian Marias.  The first (Kirilenko) is her QF opponent, and is currently having the best French Open of her career.  Overcoming American underdog, this year's surprise seed-slayer at the French Open - Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Kirilenko makes her first QF at the event, and with the continued struggles of World #9 Stosur, she will leapfrog the Australian to claim a top ten ranking for the first time in her career.  If she backs up this tournament run with some good results on grass (and with her being the beaten gold medallist at London 2012 she could well string together a decent set of results on the surface)  Kirilenko could well be a regular fixture in the WTA top 10.  Today's match though, will probably be beyond her.  Azarenka is peaking in the event at right time, improving round upon round, and shouldn't be troubled by this Russian's baseline game.

Azarenka in 2

Should Azarenka make it through this match-up she will most likely face her second Russian Maria - Sharapova, the #2 seed and defending champion.  With easily the most tricky R16 tie of the top 4, Sharapova dug deep to see off the challenge of young pretender Sloane Stephens.  Stephens, who took advantage of a Serena Williams injury at the Australian Open to stamp herself on the WTA map, has since struggled to back up the hype with real results.  Yesterday's tie against Sharapova again exhibited the distance that the youngster has to make up to compete with the big guns of the WTA.  The talent may be there, but at the moment, the 20-year-old doesn't quite have the mental and physical experience to trouble the seasoned pros on the tour.  Sharapova had to work for her victory, but there was never a point in the match when it seemed like she would lose against Stephens.

Facing her is Serbia's Jelena Jankovic.  A three-time semi-finalist here and a former runner-up at the US Open, Jankovic has, after an 18 month slump, rediscovered the form that took her to the top of the rankings in 2008.  Capturing a title earlier this year in South America, Jankovic has been rejuvenated and is slowly creeping back up the top 20 and should jump her ranking further post Roland Garros.  She came through a tricky third round during which she dumped title hope Stosur out of the competition in three highly competitive sets, before dispatching America's Jamie Hampton for the loss of just two games.  Hardly a competition to judge the Serb upon, but the renewed aggression and accurate backhand she exhibited throughout the tie should give her a solid foundation to attack Sharapova from.  The Russian should have enough reserves to up her game under attack from Jankovic, but should her serve fall apart (as it is wont to do on occasion) the match should go to three.

Sharapova in 3

Kuznetsova - this year's surprise quarter finalist

Finally, rounding out the final 8 are two former champions.  This French Open has had a familiar refrain being echoed around the stands and commentary boxes - that the Serena Williams  competing this year is so head and shoulders above her closest rivals that the only opponent with the capability of beating her is herself.  Makes sense?  Well sort of .... Serena has such a dominant record (in the past and over the first 6 months of the 2013) over Sharapova and Azarenka that she is odds on favourite to claim her second French Open title.

Unfortunately, such sweeping assumptions were based on the current top 10 and top 20.  Serena's QF opponent is an unexpected one - the currnetly-ranked 39th Svetlana Kuznetsova, a former champion from 2009.  The pair have not played each other for nearly four years, the last time being at the year end in 2009. Before that their most significant meeting came during Kuznetsova's '09 French Open championship, the Russian digging deep during three highly competitive sets to defeat Serena at the QF stage.

A quarter final again greets the pair, and Kuznetsova will be something of an unknown quantity for the American.  She has, though, not really been tested at the event, a slew of mid-table journeywomen were defeated in straight sets before she defeated the 8th seed Angelique Kerber in a three-set encounter to set up the Serena showdown.  Today's match could come down to a forehand battle.  Should Serena find her range  and her focus early then Kuznetsova may not be able to find a foothold in the match.  However, should the Russian use her power off both wings to good effect in the opening games of the match she may rattle Serena enough to cause her forehand to stray off radar.  Kuznetsova's challenge should be a tough one, but the nothing that the American has done so far this tournament would suggest that Serena won't come through the match.

Serena in 2

Images from official Roland Garros site (FFT)

French Openings

Four days into the 2013 French Open and we're just about done with the first round; a lengthy downpour fairly scuppering the tailend of the draw pushing the final matches into Wednesday afternoon.

For both singles draws, the build up to Roland Garros has thrown up two decidedly outright favourites - Serena Williams in the women's draw, coming off the back of three clay tournament victories to widen the perceived gap between her and nearest opponents Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova.

Similarly in the men's draw, a post-injury Rafael Nadal heads into the clay slam with a phenomenal 8 back-to-back finals under his belt in 2013.  Indeed, so overwhelmingly is Nadal the favourite that it seems a long time ago that he was undone by Horacio Zeballos in the final of his return tournament and knowledgeable talk suggested that the knees were still going to play a factor in Rafa's present and future status on tour.  In reality, that final was a little over 4 months ago, and the Duracell Spaniard has since chalked up a 36-2 win-loss record for the year, with 6 titles to his name to lead the ATP year to date rankings.  Such stats make him the clear favourite for what will be his 8th Roland Garros title.

His opening match saw him take on Germany's Daniel Brands, a rangy big-hitter, currently ranked just outside the world top 50.  On paper, a seemingly straightforward opener for the Spaniard, one which should have seen him through to Round 2 with minimal fuss.  For a set and a half, though, the match had a touch of the Rosols about it - Brands, like his counterpart at Wimbledon 10 months previously, playing with a pace and accuracy that had Nadal on the back foot.  Losing out on a break of serve at the end of the set, Nadal clung on enough to claw back the deficit in the second set.  With the second set wrapped up, the similarities between Brands and Rosol evaporated.  A sense of opportunities passing saw Nadal solidly close out the match to 4 and 3.  What should have been an easy opener, proving more troublesome than expected for the #3 seed.

His closest rivals and potential semi-final and final opponents were slightly less troubled in their openers.  Federer ceding just 7 games to Spanish youngster Pablo Carreno-Busta, while Djokovic, after a competitive tie-break first set, upped the tempo late on Tuesday evening to secure a three-set victory over Belgian youngster David Goffin.

So far, so-so for the ATP top 3.

The real fireworks of the event were reserved for two hometown hopes, who produced some heart-in-mouth five-set tennis to treat the partisan Parisian crowds.

Playing on the opening Sunday, 15th seed Gilles Simon left it late in his match against veteran Lleyton Hewitt.  The Australian, who over a decade ago was ranked #1 in the world, looked poised to deliver the upset of the day, taking the opening two sets from the French hope to 3 and 1.  Simon eventually woke up in time to rescue the match with a 36 16 64 61 75 win.  Posting winner/unforced error stats in the opening two sets of 8/23, Simon eventually found the consistency on his ground strokes to redress the stat enough to seal the victory.  The first round loss for Hewitt could be the final time that the 31-year-old treads the dirt at Roland Garros as a singles player, his retirement being mooted for the Australian Open 2014.

Match of the round, though, came on Monday evening with flamboyant Frenchman Gael Monfils facing off against the in-form 5th seed Tomas Berdych.  Monfils' journey has been much repeated in the run-up to Roland Garros.  A former junior #1 seed, the Frenchman climbed as high as 7 in the pro rankings two years ago before his 2012 season was decimated by a knee injury.  With only a limited playing schedule since September he has drifted out of the top 100, and has only within the last couple of months begun to string together some promising results.  For many, Monfils was the most dangerous non-seed in the draw.

It was Berdych, then, who was the seed unfortunate enough to draw Monfils early, and the choice tie of the round didn't fail to disappoint.  Toe-to-toe in the opening set the Frenchman clinched it on a tie-break.  Taking the momentum into the next set and buoyed by the partisan crowd, Monfils grabbed a break to move two sets up.  Sensing the match slipping away Berdych sought a way to pull himself back into the match.  Perhaps due to the increasingly tired legs of his opponent, Berdych took the next two sets, both on tie-breaks.

However, once more feeding off the crowd, a rallying Monfils pulled off some phenomenal defensive manoeuvres to stay in the long rallies and eventually frustrate the Czech seed into errors, before taking the match with a late break in the final set.  Some bullet backhands down the line characterising the final set for the Frenchman.  The match of the round delivering the upset of the round, with Tomas Berdych learning what it is like to face a crucial combination of an underdog with nothing to lose, a patriotic Parisian crowd in need of an entertainer and a performer with intensity and passion.  Monfils may have tired himself out for future matches, but the French Open 2013 Round 1 belongs to him.

Images from offical Roland Garros site (c) FFT

In Search of a WTA Rivalry

Another weekend, another Serena Williams victory.  Most recently over World #3 Victoria Azarenka in the final of the Rome Open, and prior to that, the scalp of her nearest rival in the WTA rankings, Maria Sharapova, to successfully defend her Madrid Open title.  Two weeks, two premier clay tournaments, two Serena trophies over those vying with her for the #1 ranking.  Indeed in Rome, Williams ceded no more than 4 games to any opponent, defeating Azarenka to 1 and 3 in the final.  Under the Madrid sun, Sharapova fared little better, taking her head-to-head against Serena to 13 defeats against 2 wins.

Spot the difference.  Serena wins in Madrid and Rome

All of this bodes favourably for Williams going into the next Grand Slam event, the French Open, whose singles draw was held on Friday and begins in earnest on Sunday morning.  Indeed, with both Azarenka and Sharapova set to face each other in the semifinal of a half stacked with former champions and potential upsets (Li Na and Jelena Jankovic, for example) Serena's path to the final looks somewhat straightforward.

However, what recent results also highlight is a distinct lack of realistic competition for Serena at the event.  She will, once again, go into the French as favourite, perhaps the firmest favourite she has ever been on her least favourite surface since the year of her sole victory there in 2002.  And she will look to emerge two weeks later having doubled her total of singles trophies from Roland Garros.  It is a similar situation to last year, whereby a resurgent Williams headed into the clay court Slam with a Madrid trophy under her belt.  That she stumbled during a seemingly unloseable opening round, against a hometown qualifier who has never progressed beyond R4 of a major and holds only 2 WTA titles captured over 7 years ago, revealed that the biggest threat to Williams' title quest is herself.  A set up and leading against Virginie Razzano, she failed to close out the match, crushed to tears by losing a second set tie-break she succumbing to pressures that previously hadn't been a factor in the #1's results.

What came off the back of the defeat was a new-found respect for her biggest foe (herself), and this translated into a plethora of titles over the next six months, during which she defeated the rest of the top 4 in the finals of the biggest events (Radwanska at Wimbledon, Sharapova at  London 2012 and the YEC in Istanbul, Azarenka at the US Open).  A back injury derailed her charge in Melbourne at the start of the year, but the clay season has seen her virtually unbeatable.

It is a far cry from 2011 when during the Year End Cup in Istanbul Petra Kvitova outplayed Azarenka to bag her second major piece of silverware of the season and spark excitement around the next big rivalry to hit the WTA.  Injury and health woes, and often, worryingly, a sense of absent motivation, have removed the left-handed Czech champion from the WTA top 4 equation.  With little more than average results since her breakthrough Wimbledon victory in '11, Kvitova has been pushed out of the top 5 and barely makes her a contender for anything beyond a QF at the Slams.  It leaves the much-anticipated rivalry with Azarenka nothing more than a fan fantasy.

Rivalries, as most psychologists will theorise, rely hugely on both opponents being similar - Azarenka and Kvitova are roughly the same age, have been on tour a similar time and coming into their prime in parallel.  In addition, either one could have played victorious against the other depending on circumstance, surface, form and the other usual factors affecting a tennis match.  However, the second factor that contributes to a healthy rivalry is frequency.  Think Nadal and Federer, Djokovic and Murray - the frequency with which the top four play each other allows for them to construct rivalries and build-up a significant head-to-head record from which they learn and improve from.  Finally, rivalries also thrive on occasion.  Comparatively, the majority of the ATP inter-top 4 matches occur in the finals or semi-finals of majors.  Consequently, the stakes are higher and the rivalry thrives.  Andy Murray, for example, may always have a tough match against Stan Wawrinka (to pick just one potential opponent), but if that match only occurs once a year in the fourth round of a Masters 1000, it will never be as significant an occasion as when Murray faces Djokovic in a final, or Nadal or Federer in the semi-final of the Aussie Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open.  It is the similarities between the players in terms of their ranking and expectation, the frequency of their meeting and the grandness of the stages on which they meet that currently colour the ATP with hues of rivalry that its female counterpart currently lacks.

In many ways, the situation is down to Serena herself - following her return to the game in 2011, and her sparkling vein of form that began with Wimbledon last summer, there hasn't emerged a suitable rival for her.  At the beginning of the 00s she was half of a rivalry with sibling Venus that led them to dominate the tour.  Since that time Venus has succumbed to Father Time and is no longer the force she once was.  Other rivalries have also dropped away - Henin and Clijsters have both quit the game, likewise Hingis (just one year older than Serena) and Mauresmo ... potential rivals of a similar age to the American who haven't outlasted her.

But, more worryingly, the players replacing them seem too unlikely to challenge Serena significantly.  Sharapova hasn't beaten Williams since 2004.  Azarenka, likewise, is 2 wins against the American in 14 attempts.  Elsewhere down the top 10, the numbers are equally woeful.  And the next generation coming through, Laura Robson and Sloane Stephens, the obvious contenders, and still too inexperienced to sustain a serious charge over a 7-match slam.

Serena vs Serena at Roland Garros in 2012

For now, Serena will be the firm favourite to walk off with a second Roland Garros championship in a fortnight's time, but it is sad that it isn't really possible to pinpoint a serious threat to her.  As in Australia though, Serena's French campaign may hinge on the misfortune of an injury, or an unexpected once-in-a-lifetime performance may derail her from a well-worn path.  It seems unlikely, though, that Serena will capitulate against either Sharapova or Azarenka, the #s 2 and 3 in the world.  Indeed, the potential greatest rival that Serena could face is herself, and so long as she keeps a measure of that foe, and doesn't allow doubt, emotion or complacency to win the battle against her, she should walk away with her 16th Grand Slam title.

Madrid Triple

If you're Rafael Nadal, you probably get used to a Swiss fellow standing on the opposite side of the net trying to win a trophy against you.  However, in last weekend's final of the Madrid Open, it wasn't his old nemesis Roger Federer facing him, but his less-prolific compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka.

The European clay court season has seen a turnaround in fortunes for the Swiss number two.  Ending 2012 as the highest-ranked player (#17) to fail to win a title, he has already captured one trophy in 2013, downing David Ferrer in commanding fashion to take honours two weeks ago in Portugal.  Following it up was his final run in Madrid, where he took out Grigor Dimitrov, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Tomas Berdych in successive rounds (all in three sets) to earn the right to square off against Rafa in the final.  Such stats have returned him to the top 10 in the rankings, and also give him better year-to-dates than his highly-decorated Davis Cup teammate.

Yet despite Wawrinka's improved achievements this season, he was unable to convert his second successive final appearance into a second successive title.  He came up against a player who was just too strong and inspired on the day to allow the Swiss man any glimpse of a victory.  Nadal went through Sunday's final without facing a single break point, and lifted his fifth trophy since his comeback in February, his third in Madrid.

Nadal's post-knee injury stats are nothing short of phenomenal.  He has entered seven tournaments over the past two and a half months and has reached the final in every one.  In addition he has captured five trophies, and pushed his points total for the year to within 100 of current Race to London leader Novak Djokovic.  With his only significant points left to defend from 2012 being the 2000 he accumulated through his French Open victory, it is not fantastical to suggest that Nadal may end the year back in the top two in the world.  His nearest rivals all have question marks around them.  Federer, for example, continues to fluctuate in form and could see his Wimbledon title under threat this year.  Ferrer has largely failed to capitalise on his superlative '12 season, succumbing to Nadal too easily in their encounters and similarly ceding the final in Portugal to Wawrinka.  And finally, Andy Murray also may still lack the mentality to repeat his stellar feats of last Autumn.  Nadal is poised for an assault on the top two, and it would be foolish to bet against him.

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In the earlier WTA final Maria Sharapova once again wilted when faced with Serena Williams.  Despite the solidity of her tournament and the #1 ranking on the line, she couldn't prevent the American bagging the 50th title of her career.

Williams sits just behind Monica Seles in the records of all-time WTA titlists, the Yugoslav capturing 53 throughout her time on tour.  Serena could eclipse this total by the end of 2013.