Two players who have proven to be excellent on clay came through in Madrid last week, the king of clay Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova, whose better surface post-surgery has been clay and she is now undefeated on it this year. In fact, she has lost only to Serena on clay since her '11 French Open semis loss to Li.
The men's draw was rendered very lackluster with the withdrawals of Djokovic and Federer and then Wawrinka was beaten in his opening match. This provided a perfect scenario to get his game back in order heading into Rome and Paris. He had one of his easiest draws to winning a Masters, and may have even stolen it from Nishikori when the latter got injured as the Japanese won the first set in the final. Nadal was his usual self early in the tournament, marching past Monaco, Nieminen, Berdych, and surprise semifinalist Bautista Agut in straight sets. But Nishikori beat him 6-2 in the first set before Nadal won the second and then Nishikori couldn't continue midway through the 3rd.
The women got many more of their top players deeper into the tournament with 6 of the top 8 seeds reaching the quarters. But there Serena gave Kvitova a walkover and Sharapova beat Li. Halep continued her form and perhaps he now reached her apogee and she's defending a boatload of points over the next few weeks. However, she has now backed up her success in International events with fine play at Tier I events and majors, reaching the Aussie Open quarters, winning in Doha, and now the Madrid. She looks like she'll become a top 10 fixture over the next many years. But anyway, Sharapova is the player to beat going into the French Open with Serena's recent injuries especially seeing that she went through seeds 2, 3, and 4 (Li, Radwanska, and Halep) to win this title. And now she has her ranking back up to no. 7 so she should be able to keep a top 8 seed which is important.
ATP Masters 1000: Madrid, Spain
1) Rafael Nadal (ESP) def. 10) Kei Nishikori (JPN) 2-6 6-4 3-0 ret.
-Nadal wins 63rd career title, 3rd of 2014, last '14 Rio de Janeiro
-It is his ongoing record 27th Masters title.
-It is his 3rd win of the Madrid clay event in its 6th year of existence.
-This win will go a long way toward holding off Djokovic to stay at no. 1, at least until the US Open series
-Nishikori reached his first Masters final, and will rise to no. 9 in the world. I thought he had reached his ceiling but he has taken his game to another level in 2014.
-Bautista Agut has been rising some over the past few months and rode a fairly easy draw to his first ever Masters quarterfinal and then semifinal. He will be seeded at the French Open and his now ranked no. 28.
-Giraldo qualified and then reached his first Masters quarterfinal, beating Hewitt, Tsonga, and Murray to get there. He is up to a career high no. 36.
-Other QF: Berdych (l. to Nadal), Ferrer (SF - l. to Nishikori), Lopez (l. to Nishikori), Gulbis (l. to Ferrer)
-The young promising Austrian Thiem beat Wawrinka but then had to give Lopez a walkover, or he may have made his first Masters quarterfinal.
-Americans: only one in the draw, 9-Isner, who went 2-1 before falling to Ferrer for just his 2nd round of 16 at a clay Masters ('10 Madrid)
-Nadal, Berdych, Ferrer, and Nishikori were all quarterfinalist in Madrid last year. Those who couldn't get back were Wawrinka (R2 l. to Thiem), Andujar (R1 l. to Garcia-Lopez), Tsonga (R2 l. to Giraldo), and Murray (R3 l. to Giraldo)
-Nadal successfully defended his title.
WTA Premier Mandatory: Madrid, Spain
8) Maria Sharapova (RUS) def. 4) Simona Halep (ROU) 1-6 6-2 6-3
-Sharapova wins 31st career title, 2nd of 2014, last '14 Stuttgart
-It is just her first win in Madrid but her 8th clay title since her return from injury
-Young Frenchwoman Garcia continued her good form, reach the quarters as a qualifier before losing to Radwanska there.
-Other QF: Serena (w/o to Kvitova), Kvitova (SF - l. to Halep), Ivanovic (l. to Halep), Li (l. to Sharapova), Radwanska (SF - l. to Sharapova)
-Serena, Sharapova, and Ivanovic got back to the quarters after making it there last year too. The '13 quarterfinalists who didn't make it back were Errani (R3 l. to Garcia), Kerber (R1 l. to Garcia), Kanepi (R1 l. to Riske), Makarova (R1 l. to Wozniacki), and Medina Garrigues (R1 l. to Lepchenko).
-Americans: A good but not great 8-6 with a lot of first round success for the American women. Serena reached the quarters but then pulled out. 16-Stephens survived Niculescu and Cetkovska before falling to Li. McHale beat Davis then lost to Sharapova, Lepchenko beat Medina Garrigues but lost to Kvitova, and Riske beat Kanepi and then fell to Suarez Navarro. Keys went out R1 to Ivanovic. Really not too much shame in any of the losses.
-Kirilenko got her win first since her return from injury.
-Kuznetsova fell to Radwanska in the second round 8-6 in a 3rd set tiebreak.
-Serena's title defense ended with her injury.
In Davis Cup, Europe Zonal Group III took place last week in Szeged, Hungary. Hungary and Turkey earned promotion, defeating Georgia and Macedonia in the finals (who were both also losing finalists last year). Hungary will make an immediate return to Group II while Turkey was relegated in 2012. The other country relegated last year was Estonia, but without Zopp they failed to get out of their pool.
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