Events / Editor / 06 May 2007 /

After Rafael Nadal's victory over Roger Federer on the 50-50 grass and clay court in Majorca, it's back to the serious business and the Rome Masters - starting on Monday.

Nadal won that exhibition match in a third-set tie-break in front of his home fans and looks to be unassailable on the dirt in Rome, where his twin objectives are to retain his title and to extend his record number of wins on clay beyond the current mark of 72.
For all that, Federer remains top seed in this fourth Masters of the year and the first of a back-to-back double as Hamburg follows next week.

Nadal has won two of the Masters so far this year - on the hard courts of Indian Wells and the clay of Monte Carlo, winning in the Principality for a third year running.

Last year in Rome the Majorcan 20-year-old lost a first-set tie-break 7-0 then saved two match points at 5-6 and 15-40 in the fifth set before edging out Federer in the deciding tie-break of the final.

But this time he faces a tough time just getting to the final with the last two players to have beaten Nadal - Mikhail Youzhny and Novak Djokovic - barring his path. Nadal, who lost to Youzhny in the Dubai quarters, could meet the Russian in the third round.
Djokovic, who beat him in the quarter-finals on the way to winning the Miami Masters, could face him in the last eight in Rome. His win in Miami avenged Nadal's Indian Wells victory over him, but the Spaniard leads 2-1 in head to heads and won their only clay court meeting at Roland Garros last year in straight sets.

Youzhny and Nadal stand 3-3 in head to heads with Nadal having won their only meeting on clay in Rome two years ago.
By coincidence Youzhny and Djokovic both made it through to finals on Sunday with the world number five ranked teenager from Serbia facing Richard Gasquet in the Estoril Open final while Youzhny, the world number 15, met Phillip Kohlschreiber in the Munich final.

Last year's Rome final was the closest Federer has come to beating Nadal on clay and he trails 7-3 in head-to-head encounters. It was an epic contest lasting five hours five minutes and victory saw Nadal equal Guilermo Vilas's Open era record of 53 consecutive wins on clay. Now he is well clear of Vilas.

Nadal goes into Rome action boosted by victory at the Seat Open in Barcelona where he toppled Guillermo Canas 6-3 6-4.
Federer, for one, will want to avoid Canas, the Argentine comeback star who beat him in Indian Wells and Miami. Canas, who sat out the Estoril action to overcome a stomach muscle strain, is one win away from coming through the qualifying to make the main draw in Rome.

But he is likely to start with a second-round clash against improving young Spaniard Nicolas Almagro - if the 21-year-old can topple Britain's old stager Tim Henman in the first round. Almagro and Henman have never met but Federer has beaten the Spaniard in all three of their meetings.

Britain's other hope, Andy Murray, is back from his assortment of hip and back injuries to take on France's Gilles Simon in the first round with the prospect of a third-round clash with seventh seed Tommy Robredo, who was 25 last week, ahead of him.
Murray, 20 on Tuesday week, has never met Simon and lost to Robredo in Las Vegas last year in their only meeting. But his rise to the world's top 10 and his determined all-court style could make him a contender in Rome, where he is 10th seed.
But Nadal remains the man they all have to beat on the surface he has made his own.

The Barcelona win gave Nadal his 20th ATP title and left him with a 15-0 record in clay-court finals going to Rome.
This week's line-up also includes Andy Roddick, seeded three, and ninth seed James Blake, the top two Americans who have been taking it easy over the last few weeks.

Roddick had to retire with a leg injury at 5-3 down against Murray in their Miami quarter-final and has played just one Davis Cup match (in the win over Spain at the start of April) since mid-March.

Blake won both his Davis Cup matches following the Miami Masters, where he fell in the second round. But since then has only tackled the Houston clay-court event where he lost to Argentina's Mariano Zabaleta in the semi-finals.

So both the Americans come into the European clay-court season with just four clay-court matches between them.
Rome and Hamburg offer their only real chances of sharpening their game before the French Open at Roland Garros at the end of May.

Despite the presence of most of the world's top 30 in Rome - that's how strong the event is - it's hard to look beyond Nadal. The stats all point to him and another victory as he looks to keep this amazing winning streak going right through to finals day at, not so much Rome as Paris.

A third consecutive French Open title - in the week of his 21st birthday - is what he really wants.

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