Championship Sunday has arrived at Foro Italico. On the women’s side, we have a rematch from last year’s Italian Open final. The top-ranked player will look to avenge her loss from one year ago. On the men’s side, the top two seeds are squaring off for the title. It’s a blockbuster final between the hottest clay player on tour and the greatest clay player of all-time. In the case of both finals, we have defending champions against the top seeds. It should be a captivating Sunday in Rome.
Simona Halep vs. Elina Svitolina
In the 2017 WTA final in Rome, an injured ankle hampered Halep and helped Svitolina secure the title. Just a few weeks later at Roland Garros, Simona and Elina met again in the quarter-finals. On that day in Paris, Svitolina was up a set and 5-1 before Halep came back to prevail, saving a match point along the way. Svitolina let the opportunity to advance to her first major semifinal slip right through her fingers. A year later, she’s still not accomplished that feat. They would actually play twice more last year, with Svitolina easily winning both of those hard court meetings. Overall Svitolina leads their head-to-head 3-2. Both players have performed very well this week in Rome, with this final being the first good result for both during the European clay season. Svitolina had no problem in ousting Anett Kontaveit in yesterday’s semifinals, while Halep had to come back from a set down for an emotional victory over Maria Sharapova. There’s not much to separate these two heading into today’s final, a match it seems could easily go either way.
Rafael Nadal vs. Alexander Zverev
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This is the final many of us have been hoping for all week, between the top two seeds and the two best clay court players of 2018. Zverev is on a 13-match winning streak, coming off title wins the last two Sundays in Munich and Madrid. He has the most wins on tour this year, with 30 wins heading into today. This is his fifth Masters 1000 final in the last 53 weeks, and he has a 3-1 record in those finals. Nadal is looking to re-assert his unmatched supremacy on clay following a loss last week to Dominic Thiem. Rafa was fired up on Saturday after defeating his longtime rival, Novak Djokovic. Nadal has won all three previous meetings with Zverev, but they’ve had a few interesting encounters. Their first was in Indian Wells two years ago, where Zverev was just one point and an easy volley away from upsetting Nadal. They next met at the Australian Open last year, a match in which Nadal was down two-sets-to-one before Zverev ran out of steam. Their only clay encounter was in Monte Carlo last year, where Nadal lost just two games. Zverev has been out-hitting his opponents with relative ease over the past three weeks, but can he do the same against Nadal? A Zverev victory here would make Roland Garros much more interesting in seven days, as Nadal would arrive in Paris having lost his last two tournaments. Let’s also not forget the number one ranking is at stake today for Nadal, as he needs to win this match to regain that ranking from Federer, as well as to have a chance to be number one following the French Open. I’m excited to see how this all plays out today in Rome.
