Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal continued to have an outstanding year after topping their respective foes in the finals of the Mutua Madrid Open titles at Park Manzanares on Sunday in Madrid.
Williams successfully defended his Madrid Open title with another dominating performance against Russia's Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-4. Serena captured his 50th career singles title and held a tight grip on the top spot of the WTA rankings.
"It feels good," Williams told reporters after the game, according to ESPN. "I don't know how many more I can win. Who knows if I will ever win another title? I just want to live the dream. Hopefully, I can keep it going. When you first start out everything is so exciting. Now I expect to win."
It was another overpowering performance by Williams, who improved to a 13-2 record against Sharapova.
"I started the match really slow and against an opponent like her you can't give her that," Sharapova told ESPN after his loss. "I wasn't reacting well. I wasn't moving well. Not only the double faults I made, I didn't have a lot of great first serves in. She was really stepping up."
Meanwhile, Nadal sustained clay-court supremacy after winning his fifth title since returning a from a devastating knee injury early this year.
Nadal, who looks to defend his French Open title this May, vanquished Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka 6-2, 6-4 Sunday for his third Madrid Open championship.
"I'm very happy, and maybe this victory is even more special considering how complicated this year has been," Nadal told ESPN. "This tournament couldn't have gone better for me. I think this was my best match of the tournament. This was perhaps the match where I was the most aggressive."
Prior to Sunday's finale, the tournament saw a slew of big upsets as Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic bowed out in the early rounds while Andy Murray got booted out in the quarterfinals.
Clear-Cut favorite at Roland Garros
With their recent victories, Williams and Nadal emerged as the favorites to win the clay-court Grand Slam tourney which will start on May 26th.
Nadal is gunning for eight French Open title of his career while Williams is just looking for her second title at Roland Garros after winning the title in 2002.