The first few rounds at Madrid were a real blood bath on the red clay. Much of the seeded players were obviously not yet ready for the gravel. But first, the most important news: RADWANSKA HAS GONE BLONDE!
I was watching her against Robson (which she lost surprisingly: 3-6, 1-6, i'm hoping it isn't connected with her hair color change) and I just didn't recognize her! So Radwanska out in the second round where the Pole reached the semifinals last year. Wozniacki is having a few dreadful first round losses lately, this time against Shvedova: 2-6, 4-6. This says it all right?
But I was most surprised by the early losses of some real gravel specialists! Like Na Li who lost in the first round against Keys: 3-6, 2-6 and Vinci was overthrown by Lepchenko: 1-6, 6-1, 2-6. Stosur got a difficult draw with Suarez Navarro in the first round and the Spanish tennisplayer impressed with a 7-6(7), 6-2 victory. How can you battle THAT anyway?
Serena had a straight forward walk in the park until the quarterfinals were Medina Garrigues took the second set bagel-style! Serena knocked herself to the semifinals nonetheless: 6-3, 0-6, 7-5 in the end, despite Medina Garrigues fluffing up the balls during play to actually make them slower. It was close the shout of this photo tells us.
Azarenka experienced her first loss of 2013 (if we don't count her many withdrawals and stuff) against Makarova: 6-1, 2-6, 3-6. The Belarussian couldn't keep her cool when she received a point penalty after swearing to the crowd and racket abuse, check it out:
Kerber had quite a succesful tournament if you consider she wasn't playing that well last month which resulted in her dropping a spot on the rankings to 7. She defeated Kuznetsova: 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 to reach the quarterfinals but lost there to Ivanovic: 6-3, 6-1 after she battled it out against Robson: 5-7, 6-2, 7-6(5).
In the bottom draw Sharapova faced little resistance getting to the semi's with Kvitova outplayed by Hantuchova in the second round and Kanepi proving a not too difficult task in the quarters: 6-2, 6-4. But the biggest news was her officially anouncing dating tennisplayer Dimitrov after he overthrew Djokovic. First they were spotted in Madrid and then Sharapova made a joke about it when writing: 'How did you catch us?' (The streets of Madrid aren't that private really, maybe it was his 'you-beat-the-number-one' gift of Sharapova?)
To sum up, we got Williams - Errani and Sharapova - Ivanovic semifinals. And it was quite clear the final would be a number one against two affair with Williams fending off Errani: 7-5, 6-2 and Sharapova winning against Ivanovic: 6-4, 6-3. I was hoping for an exciting clincher but it was all the Serena-show. In an hour and 19 minutes she achieved her consecutive title in Madrid: 6-1, 6-4. But please, Serena, leave the dog at home! And love the photo where you see Sharapova walking away while Williams get picked up by the ballboys (serious muscle neessary there!). Keep posted!
