Nadal matches Agassi record with Rome win
Stuttgart victory hands Henin Roland Garros boost
Rafael Nadal, the world number three, won a record equalling 17th Masters title with a 7-5 6-2 defeat of 13th-seeded Spanish compatriot David Ferrer at the Rome Masters 1000 at the Foro Italico yesterday.
In a match that finished four and a half hours after it started due to two rain delays, clay court king Nadal was never troubled.
His victory matched the mark of 17 Masters wins set by Andre Agassi, although the American was 34 when he won the last of his while the Spaniard is still just 23.
Nadal clearly coped better than Ferrer, who was aiming for a first ever Masters title, with the rain as until the first break it was 4-4 and 40-15 to Ferrer on his own serve.
However, he won only three more games after the heavens opened and Nadal, who has dropped only one set on clay this year, proved that he is in great shape ahead of the French Open, the second Grand Slam of the year.
Two weeks ago, he stormed to victory at the Monte Carlo Masters and in Rome he was only troubled in his three-set epic against Latvia's Ernests Gulbis in the semi-finals.
In Germany, former world no.1 Justine Henin gave herself a French Open boost yesterday with the first victory on her comeback as she won the Stuttgart WTA tournament.
Since ending her 18-month hiatus in January, Henin's 6-4 2-6 6-1 win over Australia's Samantha Stosur in the final was her first title in her third final since coming out of retirement having last won in Stuttgart in 2007.
Henin's 42nd title in her 60th final, puts the former world number one back in the world's top 20 as she bids to win a fifth French Open title at Roland Garros which starts on May 23.
Seventh-seed Stosur was contesting her second straight final, having won last month's Charleston tournament, but she had her 11-match winning streak broken by Henin's victory.