Serena Williams Wins Rome Masters

Written by: Staff on 19th May 2013

Serena Williams Wins Rome Masters |

INTERNAZIONALI BNL D’ITALIA
Rome, Italy
May 13-19, 2013
$2,369,000/Premier
Red Clay/Outdoors

Results - Sunday, May 19, 2013
Singles – Final
(1) Serena Williams (USA) d. (3) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) 61 63

Doubles – Final
Hsieh/Peng (TPE/CHN) d. (1) Errani/Vinci (ITA/ITA) 46 63 108 (Match TB)

Final Facts
– Williams concedes just 14 games en route to her 51^st WTA title, two short of Monica Seles for ninth-most titles of the Open Era. It is also her WTA-leading fifth title of the season.
– With her eighth WTA clay court title, Williams now just trails Anabel Medina Garrigues (10) and sister Venus (9) for most among active players.
– Williams improves to 12-2 all-time against Azarenka.
– Williams extends her win streak to a career-best 24 matches.
– Williams improves to 16-0 on clay this year and 33-1 since the start of last year’s clay court season.
– After winning her one previous Rome title in 2002, Williams went on to win her only French Open title.
– Azarenka falls to 16-11 in WTA finals.
– With her runner-up showing, Azarenka becomes the 10^th player to surpass the $20 million prize money mark.
– Hsieh and Peng win their fifth WTA title as a duo and second in Rome, having also been victorious here in 2009.
– Rome is Hsieh’s 10^th WTA doubles title as an individual and Peng’s eighth, with three of those having come in Rome.

Final Quotes
Serena Williams: “The first three games took about 20 minutes – it wasn’t easy, nothing is ever easy. I think the difference today was I took the opportunities when I had them and came up with some good shots. And this was the best I’ve moved all week – I feel fit, and hopefully it’ll stay like this.

“Last year I was feeling excellent but didn’t do that great at Roland Garros – this year I’m cautious and I want to work hard and stay focused and win every point I play, and not slack at all.”

Hsieh Su-Wei: “Even though the crowd wasn’t really for us, they were very loud out there and we really enjoyed the atmosphere. It’s more exciting to play in front of such an enthusiastic crowd.”

Peng Shuai: “We just tried to fight after we lost the first set. After we won the second set the tie-break went really fast and we weren’t thinking too much. When we got to 8-3 we knew we just needed a few more points. They were fighting too, coming back to 8-7, but we fought for every point and got the win.”