Rome

Well I nearly had a big upset to report to you all two days ago as our Andy was two points away from beating Novak Djokovic, breaking his unbeaten run, getting to the Rome final to play Nadal, and generally coming out of his own slump.  Djokovic had run through the first set 6-1 with Murray making too many mistakes but he pulled himself together for the second set, got the decisive break and took it 6-3.  The third set was extremely tight, Andy broke Novak to lead 5-4 and served for the match only for Novak to break back after a tough game in which Murray was only two points from winning.  It went to a tie break and Djok pulled away winning the tie break 6-3 and the match.  

He went on to the final to face Rafael Nadal for the fourth time this year (they played the finals of Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid with Novak winning them all) and, it may not surprise you to learn, won the title.  Novak has now won 7 titles this year, and is on a winning streak of 39 matches!  Nadal will keep his number one ranking for now but it could come under pressure at the French Open.

And where was Federer?  He was beaten in the quarter final bu Richard Gasquet who is in good form finally after a few months out ages ago for failing a drugs test (he had cocaine in his system because he kissed a woman who has just taken some), but Richard fell to Nadal in the semi. 

On the women's side of things world number one Caroline Wozniaki was beaten in the semis by an in-form Sharapova who may be looking to add the French Open title to her grand slam collection soon as she played her best in years.   She went up against Sam Stosur who had beaten both Schiavone (who she lost to in last years French Open final, I know it all gets confusing on the ladies side of things) and Li Na (who lost to Kim Clijsters in the Australian Open final this year- women's tennis does seem to collect finalists).  Stosur has really been struggling to get herself together since last years French Open loss, and a poor start to the year with an early exit at the Aussie Open (her home tournie) but she's back on the red clay and looking good.  But come the final she was no match for the Sharapova who won the final 6-2 6-4. 

Round Up- Juan Martin Del Potro had to pull out of last week's tournament with a hip injury and is a doubt for the French Open, Dinara Safina has taken an indefinite break from tennis due to her injury problems, Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish reached the doubles final in Rome but pulled out due to Roddick's bad shoulder, Venus and Serena are both out of the French Open which comes as no surprise, and Sharapova is engaged to a tall Basketballer called Sasha who wore a pink shirt to her match.