By Bill Scott May 13, 2007, 16:30 GMT
Rome - Spain's Rafael Nadal unleashed his huge game almost at will as he crushed Chile's Fernando Gonzalez 6-2, 6-2 on Sunday to win a third straight title at the Rome Masters.
The win in less than 90 minutes kept Nadal's record clay-court winning streak alive at 77 straight victories. He was last beaten on his surface of choice more than two years ago in the Valencia quarter-finals by Russian Igor Andreev.
A day after working in excess of three and a half hours to overcome Russian Nikolay Davydenko in the semis, world number 2 Nadal strolled to the trophy in brilliant sunshine.
'This was an incredible victory. To win here for the third time is a dream. Fernando made more errors than usual and I was able to take advantage,' said the winner.
The two-time French Open champion, aiming to complete a Roland Garros hat-trick starting on May 27, has won 13 titles since his clay run began.
He and Austrian Thomas Muster (1990,1995, 1996) have each won three times in Rome, but Nadal carries the extra lustre of straight-through success.
Nadal won his fourth title of the 2007 season after Indian Wells, Monte Carlo and Barcelona.
The Spaniard also boasts 16 victories in clay-court finals and is undefeated in Rome on 17-0.
Nadal was untouchable in the first set, where two breaks were enough to see him through in 35 minutes.
He began the second with another break and raced to 3-0. But the fighting Gonzalez, holder of seven titles, managed to break back for for 1-3 before Nadal simply raised his game.
The second seed earned a 5-2 lead on his fourth break chance of the seventh game before serving out the straight-forward win a game later.
Nadal converted on five of a dozen break points, leaving the Chilean to pick up the crumbs with success on one of two break chances and 31 unforced errors.
'I recovered well after a long match yesterday,' said Nadal, who needed five hours and five sets to beat Roger Federer for the 2006 trophy.
Gonzalez had stood 3-1 over the Spanish phenomenon, but the six seed had to admit Sunday that 'It was too tough today, Rafael's the champion again.'
Nadal improved to an overwhelming 21-3 in career finals.
Your Talkback on this Story