Australian Open champ Victoria Azarenka and Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova are regarded as the likely players to fill the current WTA power void. (US Presswire/EPA)

Last week on The Toss, Bryan Armen Graham joined to debate whether to buy the hype on John Isner. John McEnroe had talked up Isner after his Davis Cup win over Roger Federer, but in the end, the good and loyal BTB readers voted that the 26-year-old American lacked the versatility in his game to be a serious threat.

This week, SI.com tennis producer C.W. Sesno joins to look at another debate about player potential. Victoria Azarenka and Petra Kvitoa are Nos. 1 and 3 in the world, respectively. They both have one Grand Slam title. Azarenka is 22 year old, Kvitova 21. They’re both pegged as the likely candidates to provide a little consistency to what has been a wide-open WTA.

Today’s Toss: Whose career are you buying from this point forward, Victoria Azarenka’s or Petra Kvitova’s?

Courtney Nguyen: First things first, are these two even going to play another match all year? Kvitova, who seemed destined for the No. 1 spot when this year began, hasn’t played a tournament since Fed Cup, withdrawing from Doha (Achilles injury) and Dubai (illness). Meanwhile, Azarenka withdrew from Dubai on Wednesday, citing the left-ankle injury she suffered in the Doha semifinals. That’s her second withdrawal of the year after she chose to sit out of Fed Cup because of a back injury.

I suspect that Azarenka needed the mental break more than anything else (she’s flying home to Belarus for the first time since winning the Australian Open). But these two keep dodging each other, which is probably why we’re debating this question. If they would just play each other this year, we could start compiling some data and get a more definitive answer. Then again, that wouldn’t be as fun.

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Victoria Azarenka, 17-0 on the year, steamrolled Maria Sharapova in the Australian Open final to win her first major and take the No. 1 rank. (EPA)

This is all eerily familiar.

A young, top-five player with an emotionally combustible psyche, a body that bordered on frail and recognizable talent but results that didn’t quite match the swagger, finishes one year strong and comes flying out of the gate the next. At the Australian Open, said unnamed player beats a multiple Grand Slam champion in the tightly contested semifinal before steamrolling a top player in the final, all while navigating the public relations minefield with hit-and-miss success.

Victoria Azarenka of 2012, meet 2011 Novak Djokovic. Novak Djokovic, meet Victoria Azarenka. You two should sit down for a chat.

Let’s get the on-court similarities out of the way right up front. Yes, Azarenka is undefeated on the season, as Djokovic was for the first five months of 2011. Yes, like Djokovic, she is winning in commanding fashion (though she pulled out of Dubai on Wednesday with a left-ankle injury, she hasn’t come close to dropping a set since the Australian Open). Yes, her return game is better than anyone’s right now, one of Djokovic’s major strengths. Yes, she is stuck answering questions about how she’s doing it, what’s changed and whether she can keep it up.

And though Azarenka has produced amazing results this season, any talk of Grand Slams, Golden Slams, undefeated streaks and Djokovician dominance is still premature. Let the woman enjoy her moment before we ratchet up the pressure and expectations. We’re not even through two months of the season yet. Funny thing is, the comparisons don’t stop with results or game styles.

Azarenka has a big personality, one that she doesn’t shy away from or try to hide. Djokovic knows a little bit about that. He burst onto the scene making as much noise (if not more) with his personality as with his game. His impressions and penchant for jokes were a breath of fresh air during a time when restraint and professionalism (in the classic sense of the word) reigned. But when Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal began to take some issue with his behavior and that of his box, the fresh air quickly grew stale.

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After a disappointing January, Sam Stosur rebounded to make the final in Doha, where she lost to Victoria Azarenka. (EPA)

Sam Stosur didn’t hit a tennis ball for 10 days after her first-round exit from the Australian Open in January. Knocked off the court by the streaky but talented Sorana Cirstea in straight sets, the world No. 5 was left sitting under the bright lights of her post-match press conference, eyes red and struggling to explain why she has never played her best on home soil.

“That’s sport,” Stosur shrugged. “Unfortunately you can’t pick and choose when it’s all going to happen for you.”

Emotionally crushed by the result, Stosur didn’t need to hit the practice court to bash ball after ball in hopes of fine-tuning her game. Her loss wasn’t an issue of tactics, technique or preparation. The psychological heft of the moment weighed her down. It was evident in every swing and step as she struggled to relax. So the first step was to simply get rid of it all, and she returned to Sydney and then took a vacation to South Australia to clear her mind.

“At that point in time it was what was needed, more than working yourself on court for another few days because of the disappointment that happened,” she told SI.com after her quarterfinal win in Doha last week.

The mental break gave Stosur time to hit the reset button, put the disappointment behind her and quickly move on. With minimal practice under her belt, she traveled to Switzerland to play Fed Cup, notching her first back-to-back wins of the season. Neither of her opponents was ranked higher than No. 120, but for Stosur, sometimes it’s just about getting on a roll and building confidence.

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Roger Federer won his first title of the year, beatin Juan Martin del Potro for the Rotterdam title. (Peter Dejong/AP)

The Champions: A-minus. It’s hard to argue with what last week’s top tournament winners did, coming in as the favorites and walking away with trophies in one hand and, if you’re Milos Raonic, a bottle of maple syrup in the other. So let’s break down the week’s biggest winners, starting with the one and only Maestro:

Roger Federer: We’ve talked a lot about Petra Kvitova’s indoor hard-court prowess (she’s on a 26-0 run), but how about Roger Federer’s? He’s won the last five indoor events he’s entered, dating to the World Tour Finals in November 2010. That’s 24 straight ATP wins for Federer (not including Davis Cup or a walkover in Rotterdam), who defeated Juan Martin del Potro 6-1, 6-4 in the Rotterdam final for his first title of the season.

“It’s nice to pick up the momentum after the indoor season I had last year,” Federer said.

It wasn’t a week without speed bumps, though. Nikolay Davydenko looked to have Federer on the ropes in the semifinals, outplaying Federer to build a 6-4, 3-1 lead before choking himself out of the second set. Federer looked all out of sorts during that match, misfiring on his forehand with surprising regularity. But he was still able to put just enough pressure on the Russian to get him to blink. Buoyed by the win, he rolled over Del Potro, who still hasn’t been able to get a set off Federer since he’s returned from wrist surgery.

“He played much better than me,” Del Potro said after losing in just one hour and 26 minutes. “I didn’t take the break points when I had them. It’s really difficult to beat Federer if you have the chances and don’t take them. He was more confident and concentrated than me in the important moments and I think that was the key.”

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John Isner beat Roger Federer 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-2 in the first round of the Davis Cup, his first win over any of the Big Three. (Peter Schneider/EPA)

Last week’s Toss examined how important the Davis Cup is for Roger Federer. The readers voted that it’s hard to judge an individual in a team format, and therefore Federer’s lack of a Davis Cup title is not terribly important. Then the U.S. team went on to sweep the Swiss 5-0. In the process, John Isner notched the biggest win of his career by downing Federer 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-2.

After the match, John McEnroe spoke highly of Isner, saying he “really believes [Isner] could get to a semi or final [of a Grand Slam tournament], given the right set of circumstances” and that Isner is “the most dangerous guy out there.”

But is the win really going to be a turning point in Isner’s career, or is it just one big match?

Today’s Toss: Toss: After beating Roger Federer, should we buy into the hype around John Isner?

Courtney Nguyen: It depends on what “hype” we’re talking about. The general consensus seems to be that Isner has top 10 talent and he’s finally beginning to realize it, as evidenced by his victory against Federer. U.S. Davis Cup captain Jim Courier described him as a “destructive force,” and McEnroe said the top players are always concerned about Isner’s place in a draw. None of this is anything we didn’t necessarily know before, but did his Davis Cup performance convince me that consistent top 10 success would come sooner rather than later for the Georgia boy? Absolutely.

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Since the Australian Open, Caroline Wozniacki has fallen to No. 4 in the rankings. (Fadi Al-Assaad/ Reuters)

Second verse, same as the first.

In her first match since losing to Kim Clijsters in the Australian Open quarterfinals last month (and with it the No. 1 ranking), Caroline Wozniacki fell to Lucie Safarova 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3) in the second round of the Qatar Open on Wednesday.

Safarova, a hard-hitting Czech left-hander ranked 28th, has always had the firepower to blast anyone off the court, but her resolve when matches get tight has been questionable. Not this time. Safarova was down triple match point in the third set at 4-5, after already squandering a break point in the previous game. She responded with two service winners down the tee, and then another strong serve out wide to set up an eventual winner. She went on to hold and then came back from 0-2 in the tiebreaker to win the match with a heady combination of timely serves and good decision-making in knowing when to go for her shots.

While Safarova flipped the script in her ability to settle her nerves and battle back for the victory, the Wozniacki story seems to be the same as it ever was.  After all the discussion about secret coaches and the interesting hiring and then quizzical firing of Ricardo Sanchez, Wozniacki is back at square one. The troubling thing is that it sounds like she’s fine with it. Wozniacki has no plans to hire a new coach anytime soon, preferring the comfortable arrangement with her father, Piotr, as coach.

“For now, I’ll probably just keep it to me and my dad,” Wozniacki said after firing Sanchez. “I like it when the team is not too big. It’s worked great in the past as well and for now I just want to keep it like it is.”

On one hand, Wozniacki is right when she says the arrangement has “worked great.” Under her father’s tutelage, she sat atop the WTA rankings for more than a year and created a multimillion-dollar marketing juggernaut. Where the partnership has failed has been on the biggest stages, the majors. And I don’t doubt a big reason for the less-than-desirable results at Grand Slam tournaments is Wozniacki’s reliance on her father’s on-court coaching, something the WTA allows but majors do not.

I tuned into her match against Safarova early in the third set. Wozniacki was down a break at 2-3 and out came Piotr, who dropped to one knee and proceeded to go into his now-familiar Polish monologue while his daughter looked like she was being scolded for the hundredth time in her life. As it has in the past, the advice worked. Wozniacki immediately broke and then held for a 4-3 lead.

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Mardy Fish (left) led the U.S. to a 5-0 sweeping of Switzerland to reach the World Group quarterfinals. (Peter Klaunzer/EPA)

It was a banner weekend for Team America, as the U.S. spoiled the party for Roger Federer and Co. in Switzerland with one of the biggest upsets in Davis Cup history. While the men were embroiled in Davis Cup (Spain, Serbia, Argentina, France, Czech Republic, Austria, Croatia all won to join the U.S. in the World Group quarterfinals), the ladies were in Paris and Pattaya, Thailand, where Angelique Kerber and Daniela Hantuchova walked away with titles.

Let’s take a look back at the week’s action in grade form.

Team USA: A-plus. In a fair world, the Americans’ 5-0 sweep of the heavily favored Swiss would have been the sports story of the weekend. But when you’re competing against Linsanity and Tiger Woods on a beach of pebbles, well, your accomplishments just might get buried below the fold. That’s a shame, because you can’t say enough about the Americans’ effort, which left the Swiss team in finger-pointing disarray.

It’s not that this seemed an unwinnable tie for the Americans — beating Stanislas Wawrinka twice over the weekend and winning doubles would have done it — but a 3-0 drubbing after the first two days? That was a complete shock to everyone except the men wearing red, white and blue in Fribourg, Switzerland. From Mardy Fish outlasting Wawrinka deep into a fifth set in the opening singles rubber, to two relatively perfunctory four-set knockouts (John Isner of Federer in the second singles and Fish/Mike Bryan clinching the tie by beating Federer/Wawrinka in doubles), few would have predicted this result. Take away any context from this matchup and a casual observer would have thought the Americans were the dominant favorites.

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Roger Federer will play John Isner in the second singles rubber as Switzerland takes on the U.S. in the Davis Cup. (Peter Klaunzer/EPA)

Roger Federer and Switzerland host the U.S. for the first round of the Davis Cup. The Swiss have never won a Davis Cup title and on the surface, it seems like a big hole in Federer’s career given the caliber of players who have led their nations to titles. But Davis Cup also gets its fair share of critiques. SI.com tennis producer C.W. Sesno joins The Toss to debate its importance.

Today’s Toss: How important is the Davis Cup for Roger Federer?

C.W. Sesno: Howdy, Courtney, hope you’ve recovered from those sleepless nights in Australia. But no time for that now, Davis Cup is upon us. Mind those time zones.

Before the 2011 ATP World Tour Finals in London, we debated how important it would be for Federer’s legacy to become the winningest player at the Tour Finals. (Given the format, I’m still a little shocked that north of 81 percent of readers voted the World Tour Finals do play a big role in defining one’s legacy.) I envision this Davis Cup debate will play out similarly, but let’s dive right in.

First things first. The U.S. heads to Fribourg, Switzerland, for the first round of the Davis Cup. The Swiss have never won a Davis Cup title. The last time Federer faced the U.S. in Davis Cup was 2001, and the then-19-year-old came through for three crucial points in three days, winning singles, doubles and singles in a 3-2 victory over a U.S. team led by Todd Martin. He said recently that win “definitely got me in winning ways.” So thanks for that.

We know how important Davis Cup can be for the players themselves. Novak Djokovic credits his breakthrough 2011 season, in part, to successfully leading Serbia to an emotional 3-2 win over France in the 2010 Davis Cup final. A year later, Rafael Nadal dropped to his back on the red clay after leading Spain to hard-fought 3-1 victory over Argentina in the final, just weeks after admitting he “had little bit less passion for the game.” (Is there a scarier thought in tennis than a passionless Nadal?) And for those who want to get into the mathematical jumble of, “If A is greater than B, and B is greater than C, how can C be the greatest player of our Era?” debate, what would be more poetic than three successive Davis Cup titles for the Big Three? (Sorry, Andy, we can revisit this when Great Britain makes the World Group.)

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Serena Williams won both her singles rubbers to help lead the U.S. past Belarus in Fed Cup. (Steven Senne/AP)

Fed Cup action headlined the week of tennis, with the U.S. bageling Belarus 5-0 on the heels of two singles wins from Serena Williams, and an unlikely Serbian played hero to send the Serbs to the World Group semifinals in April.

Let’s take a closer look at the week’s action with some grades.

U.S. vs. Belarus Fed Cup tie: C-plus. Victoria Azarenka took all the “Woo!” out of Worcester, Mass., (OK, enough grunting jokes already) when she ruled herself out of both singles matches due to a mysterious lower back injury. Without the prospect of a Serena vs. Vika showdown, the weekend quickly turned into Williams Watch 2012, as we waited to see how well Serena was playing and whether Venus would play at all. As it happened, Serena played what she described as “the worst match” of her career in a 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 win over Anastasia Yakimova, and Venus indeed took the court in a quick 6-1, 6-2 doubles win with Liezel Huber. (And In non-Williams news, Christina McHale notched two strong singles wins as the Americans cruised to a 5-0 win.)

I suspect Serena would be far harsher with the grading, given that her form was so sketchy in her match against Yakimova on Sunday. She wasn’t happy with how the decisive rubber unfolded, saying the opening set was “definitely the worst set (of her career), by far.” She continued: “At one point I hit a forehand almost in the stands, and I almost walked off the court.” While her comments after the match were lighthearted after a lopsided U.S. victory, she was clearly upset enough to “pull a Baghdatis” on a changeover. And that was probably the best piece of hitting she did during that troublesome first set. “Probably a lot of power, which I have,” Williams said, when asked what makes a quality racket smash, “and a tremendous amount of anger. It just gets better when you have more anger.”

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The Australian Open final between Novak Djokovic (right) and Rafael Nadal stretched nearly six hours before Djokovic finally won in five thrilling sets. (Greg Wood/AFP/Getty Images)

The words “epic” and “best ever” have been tossed around to describe the Australian Open final between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, a record-setting match that stretched for five hours and 53 minutes before Djokovic prevailed 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 (5), 7-5. And those words would seem justified after such a grueling test of endurance and determination.

Still, many consider the 2008 Wimbledon final, Nadal’s first win over Roger Federer on the Wimbledon grass, to be the greatest match of all time. Others will look further back in the game’s  history. So where does this Aussie marathon final stack up? SI.com’s Bryan Armen Graham joins The Toss to discuss.

Today’s Toss: How does the 2012 Australian Open men’s final stack up against tennis’ greatest matches?

Courtney Nguyen: Thanks for joining me this week on the Toss, Bryan. I’m not sure we’ll be roping in as much of our movie knowledge in this one, but the drama that played out over five hours and 53 minutes offered more insight into the human condition than Tree of Life.

Now that we’ve had a few days to process the adrenaline high that was the men’s final, it’s time to get back to what tennis fans and pundits do best: comparisons. How does  Djokovic’s win over Nadal stack up against the greatest tennis matches of all time?

It was great, but it wasn’t the greatest.

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