Rafa Continues Clay Streak, Caroline Upset in Stuttgart Final

Another week in the spring and another win on clay for Rafael Nadal.  This week, he defeated compatriot David Ferrer (again) in the ATP 500 event in Barcelona by the score of 6-2, 6-4.  It is Nadal's 6th title in Barcelona out of his last 6 appearances there (he didn't play there last year), his second title of 2011, and his 45th overall.  Nadal's last loss on clay was to Federer in the Madrid final in 2009.  His streak continues!

After a dominating performance by the German women in the WTA Premier event in Stuttgart through the first 2 rounds, they fizzled out in the quarterfinals leading one to believe their role in the tournament was finished, but then Julia Goerges broke through and beat defending finalist Samantha Stosur and world no. 1 Caroline Wozniacki en route to her 2nd career title (score 7-6(3), 6-3).  I had been paying some attention to Goerges since about the middle of last year, when she made the semis in Palermo, won in Bad Gastein, took a set of Wozniacki in Copenhagen, and later made the final in Luxembourg. We will see if this means another step forward for Goerges.  In the first two rounds, the Germans (Petkovic, Goerges, Barrois, and Lisicki) went 8-0 only to finish up 11-3 for the tournament.

From a breakout performance by a younger player in Stuttgart, we return to the continuing theme of veterans makings headlines, this time in Fes, Morocco, where 31-year-old Alberta Brianti (ITA) won her first career WTA title, defeating defending finalist Simona Halep (ROU) in the final 6-4, 6-3.  Halep is another player I've been watching, especially on clay, but she couldn't come through in the final against the Italian veteran.  Also of note in Fes, Dinara Safina (remember her?) made her first WTA semi since Cincinatti in 2009 and probably would have won the whole thing if she hadn't come down ill.

I wanted to mention, too, that for the next 3-4 weeks you'll have to bear with the rankings for both tours as due to the change in schedules surrounding the Rome and Madrid events, the points being defended don't exactly line up with the tournaments being contested during the same weeks.  That's all I'll say about it, but normalcy should return the week before the French Open.