MADRID 2013: Serena Defends Title, Retains #1

As I predicted, Serena Williams continued her domination of Maria Sharapova with a 6-1 6-4 win in 78 minutes in the final of the Mutua Madrid Open. With her 12th consecutive of win over Sharapova, the 31-year-old Serena won her 50th title of in her 66th career final, becoming only the 10th person to reach that milestone. 26-year-old Sharapova is now 29-21 in WTA tour finals and 2-13 lifetime against Serena.

The WTA reports:

Williams is now the 10th player all-time to win 50 or more WTA titles. The first nine were Martina Navratilova (167), Chris Evert (154), Steffi Graf (107), Margaret Court (92), Evonne Goolagong (68),Billie Jean King (67), Lindsay Davenport (55), Virginia Wade (55) and finally Monica Seles (53).

And with seven, Williams is now in third place among active players for most WTA clay court titles, tied with Sharapova and Flavia Pennetta; Venus Williams is second place with nine, and Anabel Medina Garrigues - the player who was on the verge of victory against her in the quarterfinals - is first with 10.

Williams is now 28-1 on clay since the start of last year's clay court season, Sharapova 27-2.

The result of the match was only in doubt for a brief time. Sharapova opened nervously and was broken easily. Serena was sharp from the very first point and was serving well over 80%. She came close to winning the first in a bagel but had to settle for a breadtstick 6-1. In the second set, Sharapova came out sharper held her first service game and was able to break Serena to go up 2-0. However, Serena was able to hold serve (after saving a break point) to stay close and then was able to break Sharapova to even the set at 3-all. There were three service holds and then in the 10th game, serving to stay in the match the Russian fell behind 0-40 and was quickly broken after a short rally.