Rezai stuns Venus for titleV

May 17, 2010 |

MADRID

France’s Arvane Rezai upset the formbook with a 6-2, 7-5 upset win over Venus Williams to win the title at the Madrid Masters here on Sunday.
Despite the massive shock on the Spanish clay, Williams will still return to the world number two WTA ranking on Monday.
The American, who turns 30 next month, was denied the 10th clay honour of her career by the fighting French challenger ranked 24th. Rezai rallied from 4-1 down in the second set after winning the first to take victory in just under one and three-quarter hours.
“I just cannot believe this, said the stunned winner.
“She played very well and I've always respected her as a player and a champion. I just tried my best today and it worked well for me.”
Williams, winner of nine clay titles, limited herself to one sentence during the painful trophy ceremony: “She played well, congratulations,” said the American who despite the setback will return to the world number two ranking on Monday behind sister Serena.
Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal fears the huge game of Roger Federer in the final as the elite rivals set up a re-run of their 2009 title match which was won by the world number one Swiss. The title clash will be the pair’s 21st meeting with Nadal holding the advantage at 13 wins to seven. Nadal moved onto the cusp of more ATP history with his stirring 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 defeat of fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/13547" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-0224a8ad6c14d1ab51c278f9872f03b1" value="form-0224a8ad6c14d1ab51c278f9872f03b1" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="85619464" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>