MADRID: Roger Federer won the Madrid Open for a third time Sunday, rallying past Tomas Berdych 3-6, 7-5, 7-5 in the final on the new blue clay court.
On the women’s side, Serena Williams overpowered top-ranked Victoria Azarenka 6-1, 6-3 to capture the title.
Federer prevailed in a tournament in which Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal had already been eliminated, both blaming the court their early exits,
Federer defeated an opponent who had beaten him in three of their previous five matches. Berdych hit 14 winners and made just two unforced errors in a dominant first set.
Federer, however, found his ground game, breaking twice to even the score and force the decisive third set. He finally won after Berdych saved three championship points.
Earlier, a fired-up Serena Williams sent out a warning to the young pretenders of women’s tennis when she powered to a crushing 6-1, 6-3 victory over world number one Victoria Azarenka to win the Madrid Masters on Sunday.
The 30-year-old former number one, seeded ninth at the premier clay event in the Spanish capital, made the most of Azarenka’s nervous start on the blue dirt of the Manolo Santana show court to race into a 4-0 lead.
After breaking the Belarussian’s serve for a third time to clinch the first set, Williams turned the screw with another break early in the second and clinched victory on her first match point when Azarenka completely missed an attempted return. It was the American’s second title of the year after her success on the clay at Charleston last month and her 41st singles crown overall, putting her in joint 13th on the all-time list with Belgian Kim Clijsters.
Azarenka, who flung her racket to the floor in frustration on the way to being broken in the second game of the second set, had beaten Williams just once in seven previous meetings and was bidding to improve on her runners-up finish in 2011.
It was only her third defeat in a year in which the 22-year-old won her first Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open, which lifted her to the top of the rankings, and has earned more than $4 million in prize money.
Williams clubbed 26 winners to Azarenka’s six and smashed down 14 aces, while her opponent did not manage a single one and offered up six double faults.
Bhupathi-Bopanna, Paes-Stepanek crash out
The Indian pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna crashed out of the ATP Madrid Masters after losing their semifinal match to Robert Lindstedt of Sweden and Horia Tecau of Romania.
The seventh seeded Indian duo fought hard before losing 4-6 6-1 7-10 in an hour and 16 minutes.
After losing the first set 4-6, Bhupathi and Bopanna fought their way back into the match, clinching the second comfortably, 6-1.
Both the teams, however, refused to spare an inch in the deciding Super Tie-breaker, where the Swedish-Romanian combo managed to keep its nerves to run away with the match.
Earlier, fifth seeded Indo-Czech pair of Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek lost to second seeds Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor 3-6 7-6 2-10 in the quarterfinal.
Paes and Stepanek managed to stretch their higher-ranked opponents before going down in a battle that lasted an hour and 29 minutes. (Agencies)