May 15, 2007	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 27, 1428

ROME, May 14: Rafael Nadal racked up his third Rome Masters title in a row when he cruised to a 6-2, 6-2 victory over sixth seed Fernando Gonzalez on Sunday. The world number two had few problems beating Chilean Gonzalez, who struggled to get back into the final after making an error-riddled start.

The win gave Nadal his 13th consecutive claycourt title and extended his winning streak on the surface to 77 matches.

The Spaniard also equalled Thomas Muster's professional-era record of three Rome victories, though the Austrian won his over a period of seven years, in 1990, 1995 and 1996.

“It's incredible. To win here for a third time is a dream,” Nadal said at the courtside, before admitting the match had been easier than he expected.

“Fernando made far more mistakes than usual and I took advantage of that.”

Gonzalez had defeated Nadal in straight sets on the way to reaching the final of the Australian Open in January.

This time, however, the 26-year-old Chilean appeared out of sorts.

The metronomic groundstrokes he had used to sweep aside Italian wildcard Filippo Volandri in the semi-finals deserted him.

Instead he made a succession of unforced errors, gifting Nadal breaks in the first and fifth games to lose the first set in just over half an hour.

He could not find his rhythm at the start of the second set either. A netted backhand, a shot that flew wildly off the frame of his racquet, and a forehand into the tramlines gave Nadal a break in the opening game.

When Gonzalez created his first breakpoint of the match in the following game, Nadal responded with a big first serve that the Chilean put over the baseline.

Nadal broke again in the third game and Gonzalez managed to pull a break back, but in the seventh game Nadal chased down a dropshot to flick a winner past his rival and restore his two-break lead, then served out for the match.

Gonzalez said Nadal had made it impossible for him to play his own game.

“It's easy to say my serve didn't work, or I had a bad day, but I think the reason (I didn't play well) was him,” he said.

“He tries to play very high and deep. He's very fit – he can play for hours out there.

“If I could play the match again, maybe I would try to get my first serve in more, be less aggressive, but there's nothing I can do now.”

IVANOVIC TRIUMPHS

BERLIN: Serbian teenager Ana Ivanovic fought back from a set down to win the first title of her career on clay on Sunday, defeating Russian third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 in a thrilling final at the German Open.

The tall 19-year-old from Belgrade, seeded 12 here, started nervously in sunny conditions at the Steffi Graf Stadium, allowing the powerful world number four to race into a 3-0 lead inside 10 minutes.

After losing the first set, Ivanovic battled back into contention with some robust hitting of her own and held her nerve to take the decisive tie-break 7-4 when Kuznetsova hit a forehand long.

Kuznetsova was playing her second match of the day, having earlier beaten world No 1 Justine Henin 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 in their interrupted semi-final which began on Saturday.

The former US Open champion had beaten the Belgian only once in 15 previous meetings and lost to her in last year's French Open final.—Reuters