This is definitely has been Rafa Nadal's toughest start to the year. In yesterday's Madrid Masters final, he suffered a bad loss to Andy Murray, 3-6, 2-6. He showed glimpses of his claycourt prowess but he still seems to be beleaguered by confidence and consistency problems. He he had several chances to break Murray's serve but wasn't able to and this could be a problem for him going into the Rome masters as well as Roland Garros later this month.
This was one of his worst defeats in a claycourt final (and it was on home turf). The last time he lost this many times on clay was in his rookie year back in 2003. He has now dropped to #7 in the world and if he fails to reach the Rome finals, he can drop out of the top 8 before the French Open. I am still keeping the faith, though.
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On the women's side, I am happy that Petra Kvitova won the title in convincing fashion, beating Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-1, 6-2 in the final. In the semifinals, she beat a fatigued Serena Williams 6-2, 6-3, thus snapping the world #1's 27-match winning streak and handing Serena her first loss of the season. The last time Kvitova won in Madrid, she also won Wimbledon. Could this title be a sign of things to come for her this year? I'll keep my fingers crossed for that.
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