Maria Sharapova has become the woman to beat as the season heads into Roland Garros by winning two clay titles—first in Stuttgart against the Nos 1, 3 and 5 seeds, and now in Rome against the reigning French Open champion, Li Na. That’s a win-loss record of 11-1 on clay in 2012.

Once upon a time, Sharapova was more at home on grass and hard courts, and still she has reached the finals of the Australian Open, Indian Wells and Miami this year. But her latest win, in a dramatic, rain-interrupted three-setter in Italy, took her to five clay titles from five clay finals, and four of her last five trophies have come on clay. That takes her to joint fourth place among active players for clay wins—jointly with Serena Williams.

And if anyone else can be dubbed favourite for the French Open, it should indeed Williams. Although she withdrew from her semi-final in Rome with a lower back problem, Williams is also enjoying an outstanding clay season. Her exit from Rome ended a 17-match winning streak that included titles in Charleston and Madrid.

She, like Sharapova, has enjoyed much more success in the other Slams, with eight of them coming on hard courts and four at Wimbledon. And yet her second ever Slam was her only French title—10 years ago—and another win, after two years’s absence in Paris with injury, would surely taste especially sweet.

It is not often that a doubles title lifts a crowd as much as a singles one, but with Italian favourites Flavia Pennetta and Andreas Seppi both doing their home country proud with quarter-final finishes in the singles in Rome, there were even higher expectations for Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci in the doubles.

And the No3 seeds did not disappoint. Taking out the best pairing in the world, Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond, on the way, they won their fifth title of the year and their third straight clay title in a row—a match-win streak of 13. They also became the first Italian pair to win Rome since 1985 and, rightly, the centre court at the Foro Italico gave them a standing ovation.

One other mention ahead of the French Open should go to Angelique Kerber, who made her top-10 debut—and produced the biggest smile of the week—with her semi-final finish in Rome. After reaching her first Grand Slam at the US Open last year, Kerber rose from 92 to 32 in the rankings and this year won her first title in Paris, beating Marion Bartoli, and her second soon after in Copenhagen, beating Caroline Wozniacki.

Kerber now stands above a burgeoning German squad of Sabine Lisicki, Andrea Petkovic and Julia Goerges and although she may not threaten Sharapova and Williams in Paris, by the end of 2012, she could well be a new addition to the top five.

You can find many more photos of Sharapova, Williams and other players and moments from the Rome Masters on Flickr.

It may have been a day late and it may have been without the numbers of supporters it deserved, but eventually the much-anticipated 32nd meeting between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal took to the glorious centre court of the Foro Italico in northern Rome.

And a straw poll around the grounds—and even amongst the pundits who have watched this rivalry unfold over the year—would reveal no consensus on who would win. What they were agreed on was how significant the result would be in the week before the French Open in particular, and before one of the biggest seasons in tennis in many a year.

For Djokovic, the French title would seal a complete 12-month set of Slams—something that neither Nadal nor Roger Federer has managed—and maintain clear water between him and those two men in the rankings.

For Nadal, it would reassert a dominance on the red clay that he had been forced to share last year when Djokovic won both the Madrid and the Rome Masters. And it would do so at the perfect time—before the Serb went for that French title.

A win for Nadal, after finishing runner-up last year, would also give him enough points to reclaim the No2 ranking from Federer which was lost only a week ago, and that would have an impact on the seedings at Roland Garros.

Nadal’s performance on his beloved terracotta this year had certainly been impressive: He had already beaten Djokovic in the Monte Carlo Masters, taken the Barcelona 500 and, in Rome, beat the impressive No7 Tomas Berdych and the resilient No6 David Ferrer without losing a set.

Djokovic, a winner on the hard courts of the Australian Open and Miami, survived a three-set battle in Rome against Juan Monaco but gradually built up a head of steam through Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and brought his very best tennis to his semi-final defeat of Federer.

Rome, then, was something of a barometer for them both. This was their fourth final against one another here, with Nadal coming out the winner in 2007 and 2009 and Djokovic turning the tables in one of six straight title wins over Nadal last year.

The real barometer in Rome had been working overtime, though. In a week that offered up every kind of weather by turn—blasting winds, humid afternoons, baking sun and, just as in the last three years, a wet final weekend—Sunday became Monday before the men had a chance to lock swords.

And as they did so, at midday on this unexpected Monday, layers of dark clouds still loomed over their final in skies broken by fleeting windows of blue and streams of bubbling white. It did not look promising—the rain had fallen all morning in Rome.

Djokovic opened serve but Nadal opened fire, hammering the defending champion from side to side and pinning him to the baseline to work two break points. However, the deeply-breathing Djokovic—perhaps without quite the swagger he had shown against Federer—held.

Nadal continued to look full of energy and determination, but Djokovic began to warm up and play more of the deep destructive angles with which he so often penetrates his opponent’s game.

After almost half and hour, they had still only reached 2-2. In the fifth game, though, Djokovic—already with six unforced errors on his backhand—faced another break point and Nadal’s sledgehammer of a left bicep hit a return of serve winner to take the 3-2 lead.

But he promptly went 0-30 down and an over-pounded forehand brought up a break-back point. They were level again, and that appeared to lift the Serb who both came to the net for the first time and held a love game for the first time.

Things remained evenly balanced until the 10th game, where a bad out call against Djokovic at 30-30 meant a replayed point. Nadal went on to hold but a distracted Djokovic was broken in the next. One smashed racket and a warning from the umpire later, and Djokovic was a set down, 7-5.

Although the skies were clearing, the furrows were deepening on the Djokovic brow. With the start of the second set, the momentum—always a vital component but one that always brings a strut to the Nadal bearing—was firmly with the Spaniard.

The errors now came thick and fast from Djokovic—he totted up 41 in the match—as Nadal hammered home his point from the baseline. It looked, initially, as though this one would unfold as the first had: Nadal broke in the first game and Djokovic had four chances for an immediate break back in the second. However, the Serb failed to level, and then failed to convert another chance in the fourth.

With a certain inevitability, Nadal edged towards the win. After another hour on the clock, a frustrated and below-par Djokovic—with twice as many unforced errors as winners—doubled faulted on match point and the match and the title were Nadal’s, 6-3.

The numbers when it comes to Nadal, clay and titles, continue to mount. He now has six Rome crowns to add to his eight from Monte Carlo and seven from Barcelona.

He takes the lead over Federer not only in the rankings but in the number of Masters titles, a new record of 21.

He has the best career match record on clay in the Open era—247 wins to just 19 losses, and is now on a 15 winning streak on red clay.

And he must surely now go to Paris as favourite to win a record-breaking seventh French Open crown.

As he said on his first day in Italy: “My goal now is Roma: I don’t think about [Madrid’s] blue clay, I think of Roland Garros.”

There have been plenty of surprises, and not a few disappointments, for the followers of the women’s draw in Rome this week.

As if losing one No1 was not bad enough—Victoria Azarenka pulled out after her first match with a shoulder injury—the tournament went on to lose two other former No1s.

First, Caroline Wozniacki was forced to retire with respiratory illness in her first match and then Serena Williams announced her withdrawal from the semi-finals with a lower back problem.

To add insult to injury, Williams had outlasted the home heroine, Flavia Pennetta, for the four games that the Italian woman managed to play before a wrist injury stopped her popular campaign.

But the sun, in the end, seemed to shine on the women’s final. The last two standing were arguably the most widely-recognised and popular in women’s tennis. Only this week, the names of Maria Sharapova and Na Li were, along with Williams, amongst just three female athletes on Forbes Magazine’s Most Powerful Celebrities list.

And in another stroke of good fortune, the final pitched the defending Rome champion, in the tall, cool, blond shape of Sharapova, against the French Open champion in the compact, balanced, extrovert package of Li.

For Li, though, the outlook was not entirely favourable. She was without a title since Roland Garros last year and, since reaching the final of her first tournament of the year in Sydney, her best results had been quarterfinals—until now.

For Sharapova, Rome represented her fifth final of the year and her first title came only last month on the clay of Stuttgart. She beat the Nos1, 3 and 5 seeds to do so and has looked stronger with each passing match in Rome, too.

Yet this had the makings of a tight contest. They may never have met in Rome, but they had met twice at Roland Garros—notably last year when Li beat Sharapova in straight sets.

The first set was indeed as close as predicted, see-sawing with a near-perfect symmetry from beginning almost to the end.

They both came out firing on all cylinders to produce heavy, deep and accurate hitting with remarkably few errors. Both clearly intended to take control of the match from the start, one with near-silent aggression, the other roaring her intent with every stroke. Sharapova broke quickly in the third game, only to see Li break back in the fourth.

The next two games went to deuce, Sharapova holding off a break point in the sixth, and next came two love holds of serve. Until the last moment, it could have gone either way but Sharapova had the disadvantage of serving second and so a break point won by a huge return of serve from Li was also set point. Another bullet of a forehand return did the job and a calm Li returned to her chair with a 6-4 lead.

The second set was, in its own way, just as much of a see-saw but this time divided into two halves: the first half all Li, the second half all Sharapova.

The Chinese woman took what looked like an overwhelming lead of 4-0 as her crisp, hard hitting barely allowed the Russian on the scoreboard. Li was playing with great balance, and timing the ball to perfection so, while there was rain in the air, it did not seem in danger of interrupting this exhibition before its straight-sets conclusion.

But a remarkable swing in momentum came with two break points to Sharapova in the fifth game and, hard as Li resisted through two more break points, she could not hold off the growing bombardment from the Russian. Sharapova broke the run of six Chinese games and went on a tear of her own, cutting down her own errors and forcing Li’s hand.

The Chinese woman’s forehand was the first to go, quickly followed by her serve. Her error count rose to 24 compared with 13 in the first set, and her serve dropped from 72 percent to 46. That fed Sharapova’s confidence and her right arm. She levelled to 4-4 and went deuce on Li’s serve courtesy of a double fault. Another double fault gave Sharapova a 5-4 lead and she served out to level the match.

Remarkably, the third set unfolded in the same mirror image. Sharapova broke in the opening game and then held for a 2-0 lead. The two protagonists had the same number of points, 136, but Sharapova had all the impetus.

Still the rain came down, now more persistent, but all the signs were that this would soon be over, and although Li stopped the run of games in the third, she was broken again in the fifth.

But cue another switch in the flow. The Li of the first half of the match returned to take the next four games and a 5-4 lead. The rain poured down, the umbrellas were up, but the centre court crowd sat it out.

At 5-5, 30-30, there was a brief pause for the lines to be dried in an effort to see this match to its conclusion, and Li held her focus to lead 6-5. The umpire offered a chance to stop but Sharapova declined and very nearly lived to rue her choice. She twice faced a break point—and match point—through four deuces before taking this compelling match to a tie-break.

But this finely poised drama was halted as the back-court became too saturated to play and green tarps were hauled into place. All the crowds could do was watch the puddles fill or seek out some sustenance to the soundtrack of the cheering football fans pouring down the road to the Olympic stadium next door.

What few of those fans knew was that the Foro Italico was in lock-down, roads closed, transport cancelled, no place to go. Everyone would sit this one out to its conclusion—whenever that might be.

That conclusion came two and a half hours—the fourth year in a row that rain had interrupted play on the final weekend—but once the finalists were back, it was the work of little more than five minutes. Fortunately, both hit the ground running but it was Sharapova who took first blood for a 3-0 lead with the help of a net cord. Li pulled level with a big volley put-away and then a crosscourt winner but could not contain the power of an opponent who bristled with determination.

It took her almost three hours—plus more in the locker room—but Sharapova eventually took game, set and championship—her 26th title—by the smallest of margins.

Just how finely balanced this see-saw of a match was only became clear after trophies were awarded and speeches made. Sharapova may have scored one more point than Li in the third set but she scored one point less than Li in the match.

Such is the unique and sometimes heart-breaking scoring system of a tennis match. And such is the drama that it can create.

Put the win stats, the title stats, the year-to-date stats, and even the head-to-head stats side by side, and Roger Federer looked the favourite to win one of the most eagerly anticipated matches of the year.

The former world No1’s career boasts twice as many Masters, three times as many Grand Slams and a 14-10 advantage in matches played against the current world No1.

And with four titles so far this year, Federer had a win-loss ration of 31 to 3 while Djokovic’s two titles represented ‘only’ 29 wins to four losses.

And yet…

The last time these two giants of tennis met was in one of the most memorable matches of 2011, the semi-finals of the US Open, in which Djokovic came back from two sets down, and match points down in the fifth set, to beat his rival. He went on to win the title and subsequently defended his Australian Open title, too.

And although Djokovic made an early exit on the flighty blue courts of Madrid last week, he did reach the final in Monte Carlo. In contrast, Federer won the Madrid title and almost opted out of Rome as a result.

And for more evidence that stats cannot paint the whole story, look simply at their Rome careers. Djokovic has won the title twice—is defending champion—and is appearing in his fifth straight semi-final here. Meanwhile, this is one of the few Masters that Federer has yet to win.

And yet…

Return to their last meeting and what happened after that spectacular day in New York last September. Federer went on to win seven out of his next 10 tournaments, a 48-3 win-loss streak, and has beaten every other man in the top 10 in their most recent matches—except Djokovic.

Then return a little further to the match before the US Open, another Grand Slam semi-final and an equally significant win. It was in Paris, it was on clay, and Federer halted Djokovic’s unbroken 2011 run.

Little wonder this contest was so eagerly anticipated, and little wonder it was so difficult to call.

Come the hour, however, it was the defending champion who stepped up the pace to a whole new level since conceding the first set to Juan Monaco just a few days before—though the clues were there in his dismissal of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarters.

If Federer could replicate the aggressive and near-error-free performance with which he beat Andreas Seppi in his quarter, he had a chance. Alas, it was a much flatter Federer who faced two break points in the third game.

While the exchanges were scintillating in themselves—flat, crisp and deep baseline rallies that cracked like gun-fire—it soon became clear that Djokovic was just a little sharper, which put Federer under pressure, drew the greater number of errors and an early break.

Much of Federer’s problem came from an uncharacteristically poor serving performance—just 39 percent of first serves finding their mark in the first set—and that gave Djokovic, one of the best returners in the game, the fuel to press home his advantage. He held his own serve with ease, not facing a single break point in the first set, and kept up the searing down-the-line winners and outstanding defensive play to break Federer again in the seventh. He served out the set, 6-2.

The second set was altogether tighter. As Federer said afterwards, “Novak really put the pressure on me from the start. He came out fast, played really aggressive early, was eager to win.”

This time in the third game, Djokovic again went on the attack, hitting fast and clean, but this time Federer defended deuce with a couple of rare aces. But while Federer made fewer errors from the baseline, his serve was still well below par—just 55 percent—and that prevented him from going on the offensive.

He played only his first serve and volley in the seventh game but, as happened on several occasions, he came off the worse in a long backhand exchange, and Djokovic broke.

Two holds to love later and Djokovic stepped up to serve for the match but fell victim to a Federer not ready to throw in the towel. The Serb explained the problem afterwards: “A player like him can come back any time, which he did. I knew he would be aggressive, because he’s the best in the world at that.”

So a vociferous but evenly split crowd that had resigned itself to “one of those nights” for Federer suddenly had something to lift them out of their seats. Federer won an intense backhand rally to convert his only break point of the match, and then found his first decent streak of first serves to hold to love.

But if the Foro Italico thousands thought they were going to get a third set, their hopes faded fast in a clinical tie-break from Djokovic. He took the early advantage in yet another probing backhand rally and never lost it: Djokovic served it out, 7-4, to set up a replay of last year’s final.

It was a very weary Federer who, while anxious to get away for some rest, was still satisfied at having reached deeper into the Rome draw than he had expected when he made his last-minute decision to play: “I feel better today than I did on Wednesday…I’ve got little things happening now, so I’m grateful for a break.”

Djokovic, after his impressive performance, was exuding confidence:
“I felt really good on the court, the best clay match I played this year.”

No surprise, then, that he intends to adopt the same tactics against Rafael Nadal as he had against Federer: “I need to step in and be aggressive and take my chances. We have a great rivalry and there are no secrets between our games. We will both have the winning attitude.”

These two now have, in sheer numbers, the biggest rivalry in the men’s game: This will be their 32nd meeting. Nadal holds just a three-match advantage, so with both men apparently hitting top form at just the same time, this title really could go either way.

Semi-final report: Nadal leaves Ferrer in his wake again

On bad days, David Ferrer must wonder what he did in an earlier life to deserve being born exactly 30 years ago into a Spain that would soon deliver Rafael Nadal to the tennis world.

Were it not for possibly the most outstanding of clay-court players ever to pick up a racket, Ferrer may already have won a Masters title on clay, but Nadal beat him in the finals of Monte Carlo last year and in the semis in 2010. He also beat Ferrer in the Rome finals in 2010 and in the semis in 2005.

Were it not for Nadal, he may have won his home tournament in Barcelona rather than losing four times in the final to his illustrious compatriot.

Were it not for Nadal, Ferrer may have become Spain’s No1 years ago but, as it is, he broke into the top 10 after Nadal was already second in the world to Roger Federer.

Ferrer has been one of the most consistently high performers on the tour, one of the hardest workers, a busy, no-nonsense player who has spent only six weeks outside the top 20 since August 2005. And yet he has forever been the bridesmaid in Spanish tennis while Nadal has walked down the aisle to victory in the Eternal City in five of his seven previous appearances.

Nadal had taken a while to acclimatise back to the red clay after an unhappy tournament on the blue stuff in Madrid but, in beating No7 Tomas Berdych—himself a finalist in Madrid—in straight sets, he looked as good as he had since winning the French Open last summer. It was so good, even Nadal himself was pretty impressed:

“I played one of my best match on clay against a difficult opponent. It was a big match and one of the higher quality matches this year because the level of the opponent is high…I did something fantastic …and my movements were fantastic. I hit a few fantastic shots and this kind of shot comes with the confidence.”

From Nadal, normally reluctant to praise himself above his opponent, that was a notable comment.

All in all, then, the prospects were not bright for Ferrer: In short, it was hard to see Nadal failing to reach his 38th straight clay-court semi-finals—the first was in Umag in way back in 2003.

For the first hour and half, however, it looked as though the bustling, hustling and spirited tennis of Ferrer may finally punch a hole through the Nadal game. The No2 seed defended break points on his first service game and had to do the same on his next, too, as Ferrer kept his opponent swinging from backhand to forehand sides with depth and angle. It paid off and, already half an hour into the match, Ferrer scored the break to lead 3-1.

But his only break of the match would be short-lived. He made two forehand errors and finished the fifth game with a double fault to hand the break back.

Still Ferrer pressured Nadal and had more break chances in the eighth game but could not quite score the killer blow when it counted. With an hour on the clock, they were all square, but as they headed towards a the tie-break, the balance of power still seemed to be with the smaller, older Ferrer: He held serve strongly and earned yet another break point in the 12th.

But the vicious forehand down the line that had powered through the Berdych game the day before came to Nadal’s rescue and they had to take each other on like prize-fighters on clay.

Again Ferrer took the first advantage, a 3-1 lead on his own serve, but a couple of fatal errors visibly infused Nadal with confidence. The two men stayed level to 6-6 but a cross-winner on the line from Nadal and an overhit forehand from Ferrer closed out the set.

So Nadal led, perhaps marginally against the run of play and certainly against the run of break chances that came and went. Ferrer had 10 chances, Nadal only one. It could so well have been another story.

As it was, the Nadal floodgates opened. Once he had fended off deuce on his first service game, he took a 40-0 lead on Ferrer’s serve with two cross-court and one drop-shot winner. He broke and went 40-0 ahead on Ferrer’s next serve too. This time, it took seven deuces to decide the outcome and it was, again in Nadal’s favour.

In fact Ferrer would not disturb the scoreboard again as Nadal romped home in a clinical 6-0 set.

The final scoreline does not do any favours to Ferrer, as this was a close, finely-balanced battle, and it took Nadal exactly the same time to win—2 hours 6 minutes—as it had taken him to beat Berdych in the rather more acceptable scoreline of 6-4, 7-5.

Ferrer was asked what he could do next time to make the outcome a different one, and he shrugged: He would work harder, and hope to play even better at Roland Garros, but he added that Nadal, with Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer were, quite simply the best.

Nadal now has just one more match to win to reclaim the record of Masters titles with 21. In his way will be one of the two men who Ferrer put in the same category as his Davis Cup team-mate.

It will be Djokovic and Federer who fight it out in the cool of Saturday’s Rome evening for the dubious pleasure of taking on a frightening confident looking Nadal in the Sunday afternoon heat of the Rome final. Nadal did not care which of them it would be: “It’s more important to win Rome than to beat Novak or Roger.”

No doubt it is the same view of things that Novak and Roger will have, too.

Semi-final report: Djokovic steps it up to defeat Federer in semi

Less than an hour before Serena Williams was scheduled to play the semi-final of the Rome Premier tournament against Li Na, she made a surprise withdrawal with a lower back injury.

Had she reached the final, it would have equalled her two previous best streaks of 18 wins, achieved in 2002 and 2011.

She came to Rome with back-to-back titles in Charleston and Madrid plus two Fed Cup wins to compile a 17-0 run on clay, the longest streak on this surface since Justine Henin achieved 27 in 2006.

She was asked when the problem had started: “What happened was, earlier in the week I had some trouble with my lower back, it was a little stiff; I was out there practising and thinking, right, is this the right movement?”

Inevitably, given that she was the beneficiary of a retirement from the home favourite, Flavia Pennetta, yesterday—the Italian was forced to stop with a wrist injury after Williams had won the first four games in their quarter-final—she was asked whether she had felt fit to complete that match.

“I felt I should play to see how I felt during the match, so I can’t say—hopefully I would have been able to finish.”

Williams was also quick to dismiss the notion that the problem was a result of the blue clay in Madrid:
“No, I just think I’ve been playing a lot: It’s just life more than anything. I was playing a lot of matches in the end, so maybe next time, I’ll leave a little longer each time.”

The biggest concern for the woman who will return to the top five next week is her form ahead of the French Open, which begins next week.

“Yes, I have a huge schedule coming up, and with a little bit of ache and pain, you don’t want to start compensating and then eventually hurt something else. I’ve had a long last couple of months, and I need to relax and get ready for the next few months.

“The French Open is on the eve of coming up, I’ve had a good week and I’m confident that I’ll be 100 per cent.

“I feel like my form is good and hopefully I’ll do OK in the next couple of months. But I’m just living for the moment right now, and I think I’ll be able to sustain the form.”

Williams has won five clay trophies in her 41 career titles. In 2002 she won Rome and Roland Garros, has won in Charleston twice and took Madrid last week.

By coincidence, Li is the reigning French Open champion and had not played Williams since 2010—and never on clay.

What a time the home city had on third-round day in Rome! If the courts in the Foro Italico had roofs, there is no doubt that the cheering, Mexican-waving, hearts-on-their-sleeves Italian crowds would have raised them.

This unbounded joy has been in celebration of not one winning star but two—well five if you take in the doubles draw as well. And what has made the success doubly thrilling is that both the singles players are unseeded.

Look to the women first. Flavia Pennetta has been on the tennis tour for almost a dozen years and, now 30 years old, she still seems to improve. Yet she is possibly best known for her outstanding record in doubles—with Gisela Dulko, she was IFT and WTA doubles player of the year in 2010—and as a staunch member of the shining Italian Fed Cup team that has won the title three times: in 2006, 2009 and 2010.

She did not break into the singles top 10 until 2009, the first Italian to do so. Then in 2011 she made more headlines when she became only the second player to beat the singles No1 and doubles No1 on same day—in Beijing she beat Caroline Wozniacki and the Huber-Raymond doubles team.

This year in Rome’s singles draw, she has equalled her best result here—set in 2006—in her third quarterfinal of the year. On each of the previous two occasions, she went on to be runner-up in Auckland and Acapulco.

Her run to the Rome quarters was outstanding, too. Her first victim was No16 seed Maria Kirilenko in straight sets, and her subsequent two matches were won for the loss of just six games. But then the task became altogether tougher. She had lost to Serena Williams in both their previous meetings, though both times on hard courts. This was to be their first time on clay and, what may have surprised many was that Pennetta led Williams in the ace tally for the tournament by 11 to 9.

But then for Pennetta, disaster struck. Just four games into the match—four straight games to Williams—the Italian had to retire with a wrist problem. The crowd cheered her as though she had won, and Williams clapped her appreciation of an outstanding tournament. Neither will give Pennetta much consolation though the prospect of breaking back into the top 20 next week may alleviate the pain just a little.

Meanwhile, she remains just six wins away from her 500th career victory and, to add salt to the wound, she was also unable to take up her quarterfinal place in the doubles with another much-loved Italian, Francesca Schiavone.

The pair was due to play straight after another Italian pair, Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci, had done their stuff. They were scheduled on the all-access centrepiece of the Foro Italico which represents the heart and soul of the tournament—Pietrangeli is still overlooked by the tournament’s iconic white statues. Though missing Pennetta and Schiavone, the other Italian pair did indeed advance to the semis.

But Pietrangeli was, as so many times before, the centrepiece of another drama for the only unseeded man in the singles draw, Andreas Seppi. The sun was already low in the sky but the temperature hit the heights as the Italian fought through three hours 20 minutes to beat Stan Wawrinka and seal a quarterfinal place against another Swiss, his good friend, Roger Federer.

Seppi, who has never advanced past the second round in Rome in seven previous appearances, became the first Italian to reach the quarters since Filippo Volandri was a semi-finalist five years ago. What’s more, he did it the hard way, fending off six match points in a three-tie-break victory.

He saved the first match point at 5-6 in the second set tie-break, two more at 15/40 and 4-5 down in the third set, and three more in the third set tie-break.

It seemed only right that Seppi’s achievement should go down in the record books, and it became was the first time since the tie-break was introduced at the tournament in 1971—more than 2,500 singles matches—that all three sets were decided in this way.

In contrast with compatriot Pennetta, Seppi reached the quarters in the toughest possible way—but in highly impressive form. His previous two matches were also won in three sets, and against No9 seed John Isner, he also came back from a set down to win a tie-break and then a 7-5 final set.

It has earned him a place on the tournament’s stats tables that he may come to rue when he joins forces for the ultimate test with Federer. Seppi tops the leader board of longest matches for his Wawrinka marathon, but also claims third and seventh for his other two matches.

But although Seppi has not beaten Federer in their other eight meetings, he has tested him more than once. Back in their first encounter—tellingly on the clay of Monte Carlo—Seppi took the match to two tie-breakers. And in their last match, in Doha this year, he took a set off Federer for the first time.

Federer talked of how much he looked forward to playing his friend—and to the carnival atmosphere their match would enjoy on centre court—but also revealed the apprehensive he had felt in their last match about the back problem that forced him to withdraw before his semi-finals in Doha: “I was scared.”

Now, he added, he opted into the Rome Masters at the last moment because he was “playing pain-free.”

He will need to be, especially as he talked of still making adjustments to the red clay in his three-set win over Juan Carlos Ferrero. For he will be playing a man with the majority of the 12,500 capacity crowd cheering on his opponent—a rare experience for one of the most popular players in Rome.

It was always going to be a test for Andy Murray in Rome, and that was without the hand that he was dealt in the draw.

His runs on the red clay of Monte Carlo and Barcelona were not all he might have hoped for compared with 2011 — quarter-final exits at both — and then he pulled out of the Madrid draw with a back problem.

But his performance in last year’s event — an outstanding three-set battle against Novak Djokovic in the semis that ultimately went the Serb’s way — and his best ever finish at Roland Garros — a semi-final loss to eventual champion, Rafael Nadal — suggested that he had got the hang of a surface where he has yet to reach a final.

His absence from Madrid also gave him a little more time to acclimatise to the Rome conditions: things were promising.

The draw, though, threw up a sequence of men renowned for their flair, touch and unpredictable talent. In his first match, David Nalbandian drew out the very best of Murray for the entire three sets it took to separate these masters of court-craft.

But having downed the Argentine, 7-5 in the third, he faced the often brilliant Richard Gasquet. A junior champion at Roland Garros and the US Open, the Frenchman won his first senior title while still a teenager. And although he had not beaten Murray since 2007 – their three-set tussle was a taste of what was to come – he forced the Scot to fight back from a two-set deficit in their only clay meeting at Roland Garros in 2010.

And if all that was not enough to ring the alarm bells, at this very tournament, in this very round in 2011, Gasquet scored one of the wins of his career to beat Roger Federer from a set and a break down.

Right from the off, it was a tight affair. Gasquet opened serve, went down two break points but held. It took a full 17 minutes to play three games with both men looking for openings to attack and both able, and willing, to deploy drop shots, sliced cross-court backhands and looping forehands from metres behind the baseline.

It was Gasquet, though, who had to resist the stronger, having to produce his best to stay in the contest. In the fifth game, he faced two more break points, and served-and-volleyed his way out of trouble, and in the seventh it was a similar story.

Murray constantly attacked the Gasquet single-handed backhand — an aesthetically lovely action flexible enough to deliver disguised winners in every direction, but vulnerable to the high, wide delivery to the ad court. The Frenchman went 15-40 down and attacked the net to level at deuce.
Four times more, he had to defend his serve but finally Murray’s patience and accuracy were rewarded with a break for a 5-3 lead.

But this would not be such a simple match. Gasquet hit back, pulled off a dramatic smash, Murray double faulted twice and they were back on even terms. By now, both were playing thoroughly compelling tennis with variety, probing exchanges and many forays to the net.

With neither making the decisive break-through, it was entirely appropriate that they head to a tie-break after 80 minutes of play. And suddenly, Murray strung together his penetrating forehand and some big serves to take the set with remarkably calm purpose for the loss of just one point.

A betting man would have put a significant wager on the confident Murray storming through the second set, but the Frenchman must have looked back through his mental archives and remembered the position he was in this time last year.

He did not wait for Murray to break in the second set as he had against Federer but went on the offensive straight away and broke in the first game. He pressured Murray in the third game, too, but the Scot held, only to face two more break points in the fifth. Gasquet was, quite simply, enjoying a purple patch: serving at 80 percent and making drop-shot-lob combos at will.

And rather than Gasquet succumbing to distractions, as he has done in the past, it was Murray who found the fluctuating shadows across the court difficult to handle.

The ball flew in and out of sunshine for more than hour, making it tricky even for the spectator to follow, and although Murray broke Gasquet back in the eighth game, his retaliation was short-lived. The Frenchman finished off the set by breaking Murray with a glorious backhand cross-court winner, 6-3.

Now there were signs, though, that it may be more than just the court conditions disturbing Murray. He barely sat down between the sets, appeared to be holding his back, and his tennis began to look flat.

Much of that was down to Gasquet’s tennis continuing to delight with its touch and variety but much was also down to a growing number of errors from Murray. He faced a break point on his first service game but held. Then, in a mirroring of the previous two sets, the third game turned into a marathon as Murray went for broke.

He earned no fewer than three break points via seven deuces, but Gasquet outsmarted and out-volleyed on the key points in what proved to be a decisive hold.

Murray’s head dropped, Gasquet’s backhand flourished and the Frenchman broke in the sixth and then again in the last game when Murray netted a tired forehand. The match was Gasquet’s, 6-2.

Naturally, the first question that Murray faced afterwards related to that suspect back: “Similar to the other night [against Nalbandian]. Long match and sore back towards the end, but I was expecting that coming to the tournament. I didn’t take a break from training and playing a lot, but the muscles are more tired and fatigued.”

His schedule, though, will not be affected: “I was planning on going to Paris straight away – to make sure I got practising, got to the gym, just getting into shape and understanding the conditions.”

So Murray was the first of the top four men to fall. Nadal sailed past fellow Spaniard, Marcel Granollers, 6-1, 6-1, while both Djokovic and Federer had three-set tussles against, respectively, Juan Monaco and Juan Carlos Ferrero.

They, along with David Ferrer, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga — a straight sets winner over Juan Martin del Potro — plus Tomas Berdych and the surprise of the pack, home hero Andreas Seppi, complete the quarterfinal line-up.

For the two champions who high-tailed it to Rome from Madrid with winners’ trophies, the sun began to shine on their campaigns as well as on the Foro Italico.

Both arrived looking a little weary and both confirmed that the aches and pains that accompanied victory on Spain’s high plateau were taking time to wear off.

Serena Williams has already played two matches—her rise to No6 in the rankings this week came too late to affect the top-8 seedings—and her second against Nadia Petrova, at over two hours and three sets in a dust-bowl of a Centre Court, was a test of determination and physical fitness.

She admitted it was not proving to be an easy road: “You just have to be able to adjust and make the best of it…everyone has aches and pains here and there and today I felt it a lot because I have been paying a lot and practising even more. Hopefully I’ll be better by tomorrow.”

Roger Federer, after his first match here in Rome, revealed just how close a call it was whether he played or not. He made the decision, after a short practice just a few hours before his scheduled opener: “I just wanted to see how I felt and if there was anything major.

“At least here we have two days off, which can be a life-save and, in my situation, I don’t think I would have played this tournament if I would have had just one day off.”

Both may therefore be counting their lucky stars that their particular sections of the draw are panning out rather better than those of their rivals.

By the time all the second-round matches were played out, the biggest obstacles to Williams’ route to a Rome final were gone.

The first, an Agnieszka Radwanska outplayed in three sets by Petra Cetkovska, was also tired from her successful but intense run into Rome. She had won 32 of her 38 matches, including two titles, but the talented Czech was too much for her: “Petra played very well today.

“She’s a good player on a slow court…Losing at the beginning of the tournament is disappointing. I’m tired from all the matches I’ve been playing and I have some problems with my back. I’m going to take a few days off then play Brussels.”

Then came the surprise announcement from Williams’ next expected opponent, Caroline Wozniacki: the No6 seed retired with a respiratory tract illness.

Yet more of a surprise came late into the Rome evening when top seed, Victoria Azarenka, beat Shahar Peer for the loss of only three games and immediately withdrew from the rest of the tournament with a shoulder problem.

Williams was due to meet Azarenka in the semi-finals, having beaten her in the Madrid final last week. Now the only seeds she can face in the semis are either No8 Li Na or No14, Dominika Cibulkova.

Meanwhile, the world No2 Maria Sharapova, against whom Williams has one of the longest rivalries, will have to negotiate No13 Ana Ivanovic, followed by either No5 Sam Stosur or Venus Williams—and that’s before she even reaches the semis.

It’s not a dissimilar story for Federer. Indeed, a quick look at the men’s draw shows that things are unfolding in a very unbalanced way for the top four.

No2 Rafael Nadal has seen just one seed fall, fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez playing on his least successful surface. Tomas Berdych and Nicolas Almagro fight for the privilege of a quarterfinal meeting with him.

In Nadal’s other half, No4 Andy Murray shows his section still full of threats: first Richard Gasquet, then either Gilles Simon or David Ferrer. It’s a formidable scenario for the British man.

Meanwhile, in the top half of the draw, No1 seed Novak Djokovic’s section is also still intact: Juan Monaco, Juan-Martin del Potro and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. That’s before he contemplates a Federer semi-final.

And Federer, still acclimatising to Rome’s slower red clay and stretching out his tired muscles, is the only seed left in his quarter. His first late-night opponent, Juan Carlos Ferrero, has not beaten him since 2003. One of those lined up in the quarters, Andreas Seppi, has never beaten him, and the other, compatriot Stan Wawrinka, has beaten him only once, but not for eight straight matches.

Of course all this may count for nothing. Federer came into Rome the last two years with fewer matches in his legs and did not make it past the third round.

But for the moment at least, Williams and Federer may feel that the Roman gods are smiling on two of their oldest campaigners.

Roger Federer is not usually regarded as a player easily affected by the vagaries of intemperate weather.

The calm Swiss is the one often described as a “good wind player”, was the one who seemed to adapt readily to Madrid’s flurries of clay, and was not unduly affected by the chilly showers that engulfed Indian Wells.

Yet in his first match in Rome, Federer’s tennis reflected the fast-changing weather like a barometer.

His first touch of red clay this year, barring a couple of short knocks at the Foro Italico since he arrived this week, came in his opening match in Rome. So he and the packed afternoon crowd on Centre Court might have anticipated a slow start.

All the more so because of how the Rome conditions compared with the slippery, fast blue stuff in Madrid: “It is so much slower here than in Madrid and so it takes a lot of adjusting to.”

And all the more so because he would not finally commit to playing in Rome until he was sure that his physical recovery from the punishing blue clay was good enough.

Little did that Centre Court crowd know just how late he left his decision: “Until this morning after practice. I just wanted to see how I felt and if there was anything major.

“If this was the last tournament of the season, then there would be no problem but we have a long summer ahead.”

Yet when he opened against the No38-ranked Carlos Berlocq, who reached his first tour final this year in Vina del Mar, Federer played pitch-perfect tennis to take a 3-0 lead for the loss of just one point.

The sun shone, the dust floated, and the heat shimmered from the walkways while he attacked the net, on the Berlocq serve as well as his own, and found an early groove with his forehand.

Federer faced one break point in the seventh game, saved it with a down-the-line winner, and went on to serve out the closing game of the set to love, 6-3.

But two new factors came into the equation.

Berlocq had reached his current ranking—a career high—on the back of a string of tournaments on red clay. After Chile came quarter-finals in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and then in Houston, so he knew his way round this kind of court.

And then the wind, by now swirling with a vengeance, swept banks of grey clouds across the arena. A court that had glowed like a sandy beach in the opening games now turned deep orange in the gathering shade. The Federer forehand cooled down, too, and he started to miss as many lines as he hit. He returned to his net-attacking tactics of the first set to earn a break point in the fifth and took the lead 3-2 but, as the rain began to fall, he himself went 15-40 down.

It’s rare for such distractions to affect the Federer concentration, and sure enough he levelled to deuce. But amid the bustling and shuffling of coats and umbrellas, Berlocq pounced with a winning drop shot followed by a cross-court winner to get the break back.

Then, as if on cue, with the set approaching the seventh game, the clouds continued on their journey across Rome to leave the sun in their wake.

Just as quickly as the ranked spectators had pulled on their coats, they discarded them and donned their sunglasses. And just as quickly, Federer’s game heated up.

A love hold of serve took him to 4-4 and a string of winners—in particular from the off-forehand—took him to 40-0 and three break points. He failed on two but won the third to leave himself in that best of all positions. With the sun on his back, he served out the match just as he had started it, 6-4.

Federer will, no doubt, be relieved to get his first taste of Rome’s best and worst out of the way and settle into the meat of a Masters he has yet to win. And if the issue of his ranking going into Roland Garros has occasionally diverted him, he was not going to admit it:
“I have a good win under my belt and I might be No3 next week, but that doesn’t matter for me and Rafa…I wouldn’t even know how many points I am right now. That kind of thing I stopped checking a long time ago.”

So he probably does not remember that the last time he played Juan Carlos Ferrero, one of his oldest colleagues, back in 2007, he was No1 and the Spaniard was No19—though Ferrero, too, had enjoyed the No1 ranking back in 2003.

Since then, their paths have diverged, with Ferrero dropping outside the top 100 on two separate occasions. But when they meet, under the Centre Court lights tomorrow night, it will be no less a pleasure to watch for that.