(Don't Rain on Rafa's Parade!)Success again! Today Rafa won his fifth Rome Masters title in six years, beating David Ferrer 7-5, 6-2 in the twice rain-delayed final. I was not too surprised, given that he was playing against a fellow Spaniard. Nadal holds a special mental edge against the other Spanish players. I think they look up to him too much to be able to beat him when he's playing near the top of his game, despite their own prowess on clay. For instance Nadal's won the last 7 matches against Ferrer. He has similar records against his other compatriots on the tour.
With the win, Nadal improved to 10-0 on clay this year. It's a really encouraging sign looking ahead to the Madrid Masters and then Roland Garros, even if he didn't dominate his matches this week quite as mercilessly as he did two weeks ago in Monte Carlo. Nadal's dominance on clay remians staggering. No other player in history has won more than three titles here and Rafa's already got five. It's crazy!
Alos, this marks the 17th Masters Series title of Rafa's career, He's now tied Andre Agassi's record, and has a chance to pass it before the month has passed. Agassi was 34 when he reached that record. Nadal is still only 23! If he can stay healthy, he has the ability to blast that Masters Series record completely out of the water.
I'm so happy to see Rafa back in top form. Here's wishing him him some rest this week and a great tournament following that in Madrid!
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