Tennis

Rafael Nadal destroyed Roger Federer in a XXX-rated Rome finale.

Third edition of the tournament takes place at the Royal Primerose Tennis Club in Brussels...wildcards went to Brit Elena Baltacha, Belgiuan Alison Van Uytvanck, and the top seed Wozniacki...Pulling from the event were Irina-Camelia Begu, Simona Halep, Kristina Mladenovic, Ayumi Morita and Aggie Radwanska...Radwanska beat Halep in last year's final...The country that produced recent No. 1s Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin now has no players in the Top 20 and only two in the Top 100...Interesting qualifying field contains former world No. 1 junior Taylor Townsend, Shahar Peer and former US Open sensation Melanie Oudin...Wozniacki (2011) is the lone returning former champ in the field.

Photo by REUTERS/ Alessandro Bianchi Rafa met Federer for the 30th time in today’s Rome final. That’s XXX in Roman numerals. Everyone was hoping the match was as sporntastic as the title suggested. For Rafa fans, it certainly started that way. He was playing aggressively and broke Fed in two of his first three service games. And while dominance by your favorite is sexy in a way, it lacks the prolonged foreplay that makes the final result as ultimately satisfying. Fed did what he could by breaking while Rafa was serving for the match, but this was a “wham bam thank you ma’am” kind of match. Rafa dominates to take his 7th Italian Open title: 6-1, 6-3. Stats: Nadal Federer Statistics on Serve Aces 1 3 Double Faults 1 0 1st Serve % 73% 56% 1st Serve Points Won 22/31 (71%) 17/30 (57%) 2nd Serve Points Won 8/11 (73%) 7/23 (30%) Break Points Saved 1/2 (50%) 1/6 (17%) Service Games Played 8 8 Statistics on Return 1st Return Points Won 13/30 (43%) 9/31 (29%) Second Return Points Won 16/23 (70%) 3/11 (27%) Break Points Won 5/6 (83%) 1/2 (50%) Return Games Played 8 8 Statistics on Points Total Service Points Won 30/42 (71%) 24/53 (45%) Total Return Points Won 29/53 (55%) 12/42 (29%) Total Points Won 59/95 (62%) 36/95 (38%) Other Stats Winners 12 15 Unforced errors 8 32 Net Approaches 4/5 (80%) 9/19 (47%) [View the story "Rome: Nadal v. Federer" on Storify]

Serena Williams clinched her fourth consecutive title in comprehensive fashion as she beat Victoria Azarenka 6-1 6-3 in the final of the Italian Open on Sunday.

At 31 years old, Serena Williams seems to have decided that she has no time left for rivals. Last week she beat world No. 2 Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-4 in the final in Madrid. This week she beat world No. 3 Victoria Azarenka 6-1, 6-3 in the final in Rome. She’ll go to Paris next week with the rest of the women’s field barely visible in the rearview mirror. Serena set the tone right away in this one by breaking Vika in a long opening service game. Azarenka was under immediate pressure, and she began to press. With a break point in the second game, she jumped at a forehand and drilled it in the net. At the same time, Serena was showing off the clay chops that had made her so casually dominant all week: she was sliding, she was retrieving, she was hitting penetrating shots while she was on the run. Her most effective play today was pushing Azarenka outside the sidelines with her crosscourt forehand, and following that with a backhand winner into the open court. Serena made this play look absurdly easy, against an opponent who is the aggressor in the majority of her matches. Williams won 74 points on the match, an astonishing 41 of them with winners. And she did it on what for her was an off serving day; Serena made just 59 percent of her first serves—though nine of them went for aces. You could argue that this one was closer than the score indicated. Many of the games went to deuce, the match lasted for more than an hour and a half, and Azarenka mixed things up enough in the second set—charging forward, trying the drop shot—to briefly get back into it. When Vika came back from 1-4 to 3-4, Serena was nervous enough to hit a very tight backhand return into the net at break point. But Azarenka shot her own comeback in the foot by double faulting on the next break point to go down 3-5. There would be, almost literally, no more returns for Vika from there: Serena hit two aces and a backhand winner to close out the match with a fist-pump and a “Come on!” From the score to the rallies themselves, it was too much of an uphill climb for Azarenka to get back into this one. Last year, Serena went to Paris as the clear favorite. This year it’s even clearer; few players have ever distanced themselves from their closest “rivals” the way she has at the moment—maybe we should just call the other top WTA players, “opponents closest to Serena in the rankings.” She melted down in the first round at Roland Garros in 2012, and it’s possible that the weight of expectations will weigh on her again in 2013. But after losing just 14 games in five matches at the Foro Italico, and showing off her new mastery of a surface she never loved in the past, no one can take Rome away from her.

NTERNAZIONALI BNL D’ITALIA Rome, Italy May 13-19, 2013 $2,369,000/Premier Red Clay/Outdoors Results -  Saturday, May 18, 2013 Singles – Semifinals (1) Serena Williams (USA) d. (Q) Simona Halep (ROU) 63 60 (3) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) d  (7) Sara Errani (ITA) 60 75 Doubles – Semifinals (1) Errani/Vinci (ITA/ITA) d. Kudryavtseva/Rodionova (RUS/AUS) 62 61 Hsieh/Peng (TPE/CHN) d. (2) Petrova/Srebotnik (RUS/SLO) 62 61 Order Of Play – Sunday, May 19, 2013 Centrale (from 11.00hrs) 1. Doubles Final: Errani/Vinci vs. Hsieh/Peng 2. Singles Final: Serena Williams vs. Victoria Azarenka (NB 13.30hrs) 3. ATP: Nadal vs. Federer (NB 16.00hrs) Pietrangeli (from 15.00hrs) 1. ATP: Bryan/Bryan vs. Bhupathi/Bopanna

The flamboyant Fabio Fognini leaps back into action on the French Riviera. Only the intrepid and the desperate play the week between a Masters 1000 tournament and a major, where the 250 events in Nice and Dusseldorf fall.  Rarely does a player who forges deep into one of these tournaments carry that success onto a stage with a brighter spotlight.  Thus, these draws feature struggling players searching for momentum or clay specialists seeking to squeeze every opportunity to gain rankings points out of their favorite season.  Now that the dust has settled on Madrid and Rome, Nice and Dusseldorf conclude the crushed-brick Road to Roland Garros in gentler fashion. Nice: Top half:  Decapitated with the withdrawal of top seed Tomas Berdych, the draw at this Mediterranean tournament now lacks any man in the top 15.  The only seed in the top quarter, Marcel Granollers, may feel some of the fatigue that forced Berdych out of Nice, for he reached the quarterfinals in Rome last week.  His success there impresses more from a distance than on closer inspection, built upon a Murray retirement and ending with a demolition by Benoit Paire.  Granollers could face Carlos Berlocq, an Argentine who won a set from Nadal on South American clay but has done little on the European terre battue.  Gifted a bye into the second round with Berdych’s withdrawal, Albert Montanes has accomplished little in 2013 after a tepid 2012 at the ATP level.  Another Spaniard, Barcelona quarterfinalist Albert Ramos, won a set from Wawrinka in Portugal and has developed more consistency this year than many of the men around him. The third-seeded Sam Querrey rarely has enjoyed his trips to Europe despite winning the occasional small event such as Belgrade and Queens Club.  Less formidable away from home, he submitted perfunctory efforts while losing in the opening rounds of Madrid and Rome.  But Querrey has landed in a mild section of the draw, only a qualifier standing between him and the quarterfinals.  There, he could face Lithuanian phenom Ricardas Berankis, whom he dismantled in the Los Angeles final last year.  Perhaps a more likely opponent, Denis Istomin has troubled Querrey on faster surfaces while winning two of their five career meetings.  Their first clay match might not happen if Alejandro Falla deploys his superior clay skills effectively.  The best clay player in this quarter, Falla has lost twice to Querrey on indoor hard courts this year and has enjoyed scant recent success even on his favorite surface. Semifinal:  Granollers vs. Querrey Bottom half:  Another American who can grow weary in his travels, John Isner has flickered into form only sporadically this year.  He did win a title on red clay in Houston, defeating creditable clay specialists in the process, and he remains the only man to play a fifth set against Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros.  Frequently contesting tiebreaks, Isner will feel confident that he can extend the record-breaking tiebreak losing streak of Robin Haase in the second round (currently 17 and counting).  As did Roland Garros, Nice has handed home hope Gael Monfils a wildcard to ease his ongoing comeback from a host of injuries.  Unable to gain any sustained traction this year, Monfils received no favors from a draw that pits him against Fabio Fognini in the second round.  The Italian reached the semifinals of Monte Carlo with victories over two top-ten opponents, establishing himself as one of the surprise threats to watch at Roland Garros.  Last fall, Fognini took Isner deep into a final set on an indoor hard court, so he will expect to reverse that result on clay. Defeated twice by Fognini at clay Masters 1000 tournaments this spring, his countryman Andreas Seppi looks to mitigate the damage from losing his Rome quarterfinal points.  Seppi faces an intriguing early test against Madrid semifinalist Pablo Andujar, who had won just five matches since the US Open before recording the best result of his career two weeks ago.  These

Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer clash for the first time on clay in over 23 months, when they come face-to-face in Sunday's final of the Rome Masters.

©Colette Lewis 2013-- Urbana, IL-- University of Southern California head coach Peter Smith has had sleepless nights at the NCAA Team Tournament, but the past four years those nights have been... For the complete story, click on the title of the post to go to zootennis.com

The 5A and 6A boys and girls tennis state championships were held at Tualatin Hills Tennis Center on May 18, 2013.