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Paris — Serena Williams reinforced her huge lead at the top of the WTA Tour rankings a week out from the start of the French Open after winning the Italian Open on Sunday.
Williams beat fellow American Madison Keys in the final in Rome to set herself up nicely for Roland Garros.
Second place in the rankings was reclaimed by Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska from Germany’s Angelique Kerber, who suffered an early exit in the Italian capital.
Elsewhere, Victoria Azarenka moved up a place to fifth at the expense of Romania’s Simona Halep and Timea Bacsinszky and Flavia Pennetta were also climbers in the top 10.
Novak Djokovic underlined the growing clay-court threat of Andy Murray barely a fortnight from the French Open after conceding defeat to the British number one in the final of the Rome Masters.
Murray, the number two seed who suffered defeat to Djokovic in last week’s Masters final in Madrid, celebrated his 29th birthday in style with a stylish 6-3, 6-3 victory over the Serbian in one hour, 35 minutes.
It was Murray’s first title in Rome, the third clay-court title of his career after victories on the red dirt in Munich and Madrid last year and, more importantly, comes in timely fashion.
Murray’s powerful serve had Djokovic in trouble on more than one occasion during a rain-hit 1hr 35mins final in which he requested, without success, a break amid fears he would slip and injure his ankle.
But Murray showed progress in other areas, and although Djokovic heads to Paris looking to make amends for last year’s stunning defeat to Swiss Stan Wawrinka, Murray has just become a potentially bigger obstacle to his hopes of a 12th Grand Slam title.— Sport24.
Online Reporter