The world number one claimed her first tournament of the year by beating Madison Keys 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 in all-American final in Rome.
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Today Madison beat Muguruza 7-5 6-4, and in the second set when she was two points from winning, the match was supended because of the rain.
Serena has now become the fifth woman to win 70 career titles afterMartina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, and Margaret Court.
Serena Williams returns this week to Paris, her second home, as reigning French Open champion and owner of her fourth Italian Open title, a considerable comfort to her after failing to win two previous finals in an uneven start to the 2016 season.
After seizing the early initiative, Keys seemed to be affected by swirling winds as she gave up a 40-15 lead to be broken in the sixth game, courtesy of two double faults and a pair of forehand errors.
Coming into the match as an absolute underdog, the 24-ranked Keys went neck-to-neck against her fancied Spanish counterpart, with both players relying heavily on their service games.
The world No. 1 roared through five matches without dropping a set then elicited a huge roar of approval from Rome fans delivering her victory speech exclusively in Italian.
Begu played well in the opening set but unfortunately for the Romanian, the inevitable happened. Williams converted all 3 of the break point opportunities that she created and won 83% of the points on her first serve.
The victory meant much for Serena as it also ended her nine-month title drought.
In a breakout performance a year ago, Keys reached the Australian Open semifinals and Wimbledon quarterfinals.
Keys, 13 years and 23 ranking points adrift of the world No1, broke at the start, before Williams had properly warmed up, and tried desperately hard to resist her charge thereafter.
The first all-American women’s clay-court final since the 2002 Roland Garros when Serena stopped sister Venus for the title, began with a bang.
The Spaniard has yet to drop a set in the tournament and her confidence will have been growing as the rounds went on, but she now faces a tough test in the shape of Madison Keys.
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Keys was more aggressive, hitting 29 winners to Muguruza’s 20.
