Aravane Rezai of France won the biggest title of her career by defeating Venus Williams of the USA 6-2, 7-5 in the 2010 WTA Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open.
It was unseeded Rezai, last year’s champion at Strasbourg and Bali taking on 4th seed Williams, this year’s champ in Dubai and Acapulco in the Final. Rezai put down the former world No. 1 in what she described as the best week of her career.
Rezai rallied from two breaks down in the second set to win her third career title in her sixth final. Williams reached break point against Rezai 13 times, but was able to capitalize on only two of those. Rezai scored on 5 of 10 break points she held against William. Rezai also won 77% of her 1st serve points; Williams won only 60% of her 1st serve points,.
After the match, Rezai said: “It’s been the best week of my career. I played very well and I’m very proud of myself because it was a very tough tournament and there were a lot of players here—everyone was here—so I just believed in myself.”
Williams wasn’t quite able to give credit to the good play of Rezai, as she said: “I probably wasn’t at the highest of my energy today. I felt a little slower than normal, but I tried hard and I feel very good about my game. Sometimes you run into a player who’s red hot, they hit every shot, they don’t miss—and credit to them.”
Next up on the WTA Tour is the WTA Polsat Warsaw Open, May 17-22 in Warsaw, Poland, followed by the French Open May 23-June 6 in Paris, France.
