For the first time of the season, Agnieszka Radwanska lost to someone not named Victoria Azarenka. (Getty Images)

ROME — Upsets and near-upsets dominated the news Wednesday in the second round of the Italian Open, where Serena Williams survived but John Isner, Agnieszka Radwanska and Caroline Wozniacki all tumbled out of the last significant lead-up tournament to the French Open.

A boisterous Italian crowd watched hometown favorite Andrea Seppi knock off Isner 2-6, 7-6 (5) 7-5 at the Foro Italico’s Court Pietrangeli. The picturesque court, which is sunk into the ground and surrounded by marble statues, has fast become my favorite non-Slam No. 3 venue because of the noisy atmosphere it generates. Add in the presence of an Italian like Seppi, and any player would feel like he’s playing a Davis Cup match.

(UPDATE: Victoria Azarenka withdrew from the Italian Open with a shoulder injury.)

Isner was understandably devastated after a second straight early departure. The 27-year-old American saved 11 consecutive break points before finally dropping serve at 5-5 in the third set, a break that proved decisive. Unless he takes a wild card into next week’s tournament in Nice, France, Isner will head into Roland Garros with only one victory from tune-up tournaments in Madrid and Rome. Not great for a guy whose confidence on European clay was soaring only a month ago.

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After capturing the Madrid Open title, Roger Federer hasn’t announced whether he will play in the Italian Open. (Getty Images)

ROME — If you can believe it, we’re one week away from the start of the French Open (qualifying begins May 22nd) and it’s only now that we’ll get to see (hopefully) a full ATP and WTA field go at it on the traditional European red clay. The Internazionali BNL D’Italia is already underway in Rome, where tournament organizers are waiting with bated breath to see if Roger Federer will withdraw from the tournament. The newly crowned Madrid champ landed in Rome on Monday, but says he’ll wait to make a decision after he gets a couple of days rest.

If Federer’s body is feeling the ill-effects from Madrid — his first tournament since losing to Andy Roddick in Miami — then it makes sense not to risk his health this close to the French Open. But that would mean his only preparation for the French would be a quasi-indoor tournament on blue clay that bears no resemblance, in color or play, to the dirt in Paris. That’s a tough calculus to make, but I’d be surprised to see him skip Rome. If Federer does play then we’ll have the top four into a draw for the first time since Miami.

Men’s draw breakdown

Djokovic’s half: Novak said coming back to the red clay in Rome after the calamity of Madrid “felt like paradise.”  The Italians love him here and why wouldn’t they? He has an Italian clothing sponsor and he’s fluent in the native language as well. The defending champion has drawn Federer in his half, along with Juan Martin del Potro, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Janko Tipsarevic and John Isner. Del Potro and Tsonga are scheduled for a third round clash and if Isner can put together a string of wins, he could face Federer in the quarterfinals in a rematch of their Davis Cup match. Keep an eye on John. He needs to make a statement here after a disappointing loss in his first match in Madrid.

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Rafael Nadal fell to No. 3 in the rankings after a third-round loss to Fernando Verdasco in Madrid. (Getty Images)

ROME — Rafael Nadal trails Roger Federer in the rankings for the first time in nearly two years, having dropped to No. 3 after his third-round loss in Madrid to Fernando Verdasco. It’s the first time Nadal has been ranked No. 3 since May 10, 2010, but the Spaniard isn’t fazed.

“To arrive with No. 2 or No. 3 is not going to change my goal,” Nadal said after arriving here for the Italian Open. “The goal is the same if you are No. 2, No. 3 or No. 10. If you are No. 3 or No. 2, you have to win. It doesn’t really change the semifinals. You have to win against the best, even if you are No. 2 or No. 3. Doesn’t make a big difference.”

Nadal returned home to Mallorca after losing in Madrid to spend time with his family and partake in his favorite hobby, fishing. Now back to work, Nadal said he’s not concerned about the momentary drop. As he pointed out, he’s only 115 points behind Federer and 570 points behind Novak Djokovic in the Race rankings, which measure a player’s performance in the calendar year as opposed to the regular rankings, which track performance over the last 52 weeks. For Nadal, it’s all about the Race rankings.

“I really don’t know much about the [rankings] — seriously — but the Race says what you have been doing since the beginning of the season,” Nadal said. “When I start the year in January, I understand that like a league — a soccer league — you start and finish and the ranking is there but the Race is when you know how you are doing. The Race is the real points that you are playing. That is the only thing that I follow, the Race. You start from zero and finish your season at No. 6, No. 2., No. 1, No. 5 and then you come back to zero. That is the way I understand the sport.”

Serena Williams is 13-0 on clay this year, with titles in Madrid and Charleston. (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

The Report Card hands out grades for the week in tennis. This past week, Roger Federer continued his stellar year, Serena Williams fired up a flare for all to see and Madrid’s blue clay dominated the headlines.

Madrid Open: B-plus. For all of the drama, the tournament actually turned out to be highly entertaining. In fact, I wouldn’t mind this nutty surface if it were used outside of the lead-up period for the French Open. It yielded fast, aggressive, first-strike tennis, which was refreshing given the trend toward slowing down courts around the world. But as I said last week, players shouldn’t be forced to play this style on these substandard courts in advance of Roland Garros.

Serena Williams: A. Let’s look at her record on clay this year: two titles (her only titles), 5-0 on green clay, 2-0 on red clay and 6-0 on blue clay. All the while she insists that clay is actually her favorite surface, even preferring it over grass. Sure, the blue and green clay aren’t substitutes for the true European red clay at the French Open, and her red-clay wins were at Fed Cup over two players ranked outside the top 100. But she has beaten Sam Stosur, Caroline Wozniacki, Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka on clay this year, and her 6-1, 6-3 destruction of No. 1 Azarenka in the Madrid final sent a startling and simple message: I’m back.

Roger Federer: A. Federer collected his Tour-leading fourth title of the year and record-tying 20th Masters trophy, and climbed to No. 2 in the rankings for the first time since March 2011. Oh, and Federer staked his claim to the label of G.O.A.T. on Blue Clay (hey, it’s a thing). This week marks the first time since May 2010 that Federer is ranked ahead of Nadal, and he should send Novak Djokovic a basket of muffins for helping him do it. Djokovic’s 2011 domination of Nadal helped Federer close the point gap, and the 30-year-old Swiss did the rest: Federer is 45-3 with seven titles since his semifinal loss to Djokovic at the 2011 U.S. Open.

Tomas Berdych: A. The Czech didn’t drop a set until the final and he looked at home on the blue clay, taking advantage of his big game on the quick surface to dominate Gael Monfils and Fernando Verdasco and edge Juan Martin del Potro in two tiebreakers. (He even posted New Order’s Blue Monday on his Facebook page mid-week.) With a semifinal appearance in Monte Carlo and runner-up finish in Madrid, he’s rounding into form nicely for the French Open.

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Recently retired Ivan Ljubicic took to Twitter over the weekend to call out the American men for skipping the European clay-court season. Mardy Fish has been sidelined since Houston with an illness that forced him out of Davis Cup due to extreme fatigue, and Andy Roddick is still healing and protecting the hamstring injury that he sustained at the Australian Open. That didn’t stop Ljubicic, who offered this rhetorical (?) question:

Wonder how our tour would look if european players were skipping American tourneys the way Americans are skipping european tournamets—
Ivan Ljubicic (@IvanLjubicic1) May 12, 2012

As expected, the Americans didn’t hesitate to respond in kind:

@IvanLjubicic1 Pretty sure mardy fish is sick—
John Isner (@JohnIsner) May 12, 2012

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Roger Federer and Serena Williams, born seven weeks apart in 1981, are showing no signs of slowing down. (Susana Vera/Reuters; Juan Carlos Hidalgo/EPA)

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Roger Federer recaptured the No. 2 ranking from Rafael Nadal with his 3-6, 7-5, 7-5 win over Tomas Berdych, and Serena Williams recaptured the right to wave her index finger in the air with a decisive 6-1, 6-3 victory over No. 1 Victoria Azarenka in Madrid. Here are five thoughts on the Madrid Open finals, where two resilient champions showed just why they’re the greatest male and female players of their generation.

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After losing to Fernando Verdasco at the Madrid Open, Rafael Nadal is threatening to skip the event next year if the surface isn’t changed. (EPA)

The talk of the town is the Madrid Open’s controversial blue clay. In clearing out my notebook, I’ll look at what Rafael Nadal’s shocking loss to Fernando Verdasco means for a potential ranking shakeup heading into the French Open; the blue clay; and Milos Raonic’s “statement loss.”

1. Rafa’s revolt: You have to feel for Verdasco. Here he is pulling off a nearly impossible feat — Verdasco came back from a double-break down, 2-5, in the third set to win five straight games and drop Nadal 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 — and getting the biggest win of his career in his hometown after a long slump, and the guy isn’t even the C-story. Not that Verdasco should care. Let Rafa have the headlines, he’ll take the scoreboard.

First, let’s look at the unexpected result. Verdasco had never beaten Nadal in 14 previous meetings. In fact, it was only the ninth time Nadal has lost on clay since 2005. His losses on the dirt since then have come against Gaston Gaudio, Igor Andreev, Roger Federer (twice), Juan Carlos Ferrero, Robin Soderling, Novak Djokovic (twice) and now Verdasco. Rafa had won 22 straight on the surface, dating to his loss to Djokovic in the Rome final last year.

Now, Nadal is threatening to skip Madrid next year if the color and the court surface aren’t fixed. This isn’t an empty threat. Madrid may be a mandatory Masters tournament, but a player can skip one without penalty if he meets certain criteria. Nadal has played more than 600 matches in his career, so he doesn’t lose bonus-pool money if he skips one Masters event.

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Novak Djokovic was slipping and sliding all over the place Tuesday in his 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 win over Daniel Gimeno-Traver at the Madrid Open. Visibly annoyed with his inability to change direction in his first match on the blue clay, the world No. 1 joked afterward that he’d need some help from his Expendables 2 co-star.

“Either I come up with the football shoes or I invite Chuck Norris to advise me on how I should play on this court,” the Serb told reporters.

Hey, you know what color Norris’ beard is, right? Red. Coincidence? I think not.

This isn’t the first time a tennis player has called on the unstoppable power of Chuck Norris. Remember Andy Roddick’s tribute at Davis Cup last year?

Here are some highlights from Djokovic’s victory. To see what he’s talking about, check out the point at 4:58.

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When it comes to the blue clay in Madrid, there’s one thing we can all agree on: We’re all talking about the blue clay in Madrid. For a tournament without much history, that’s not a bad marketing coup. I’ll get to talking about the actual tennis that’s being played on these courts soon. Until then, here are some initial thoughts after bathing in the sea of blue that was the Caja Majica while sitting on my couch watching Tennis Channel’s early coverage.

• Better optics. Is the true, no? Among tournament owner Ion Tiriac’s defenses of blue clay, the one that’s universally convincing is that it offers better viewing for spectators. No doubt that the color contrast between the ball and the court is significantly better with blue as the backdrop. Watching red-clay tournaments on a non-HD television (or even worse, an online feed) can sometimes feel like a futile endeavor, where I pretend like I can totally see the ball when, really, I totally can’t see the ball. So watching matches on Tennis Channel in standard definition was great. You can track the ball as well as you can on a hard court. Which brings me to my next point …

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Juan Martin del Potro defended his title at the Estoril Open by dropping No. 2-seeded Richard Gasquet 6-4, 6-2. (Jose Manuel Ribeiro/Reuters)

The Report Card hands out grades for the week in tennis. This past week, Juan Martin del Potro won another title and Sara Errani continued her clay-court winning streak.

Juan Martin del Potro: A. The Argentine successfully defended his title at the Estoril Open without dropping a set, beating Richard Gasquet 6-4, 6-2 on Sunday to extend his 2012 clay record to 6-0 and improve to 27-6 this year. Ranked 11th, Del Potro’s six losses this year have come against quality opponents: Roger Federer (four times), David Ferrer and Marcos Baghdatis. So at what point do we set aside our tempered expectations given his comeback from wrist surgery and begin to anticipate more?

Sara Errani: A. By defeating Elena Vesnina 7-5, 6-4 for the Budapest title, the Italian stretched her winning streak on clay to 15 and she heads into Madrid fresh off consecutive titles in Hungary and Barcelona. Errani moved to 16-1 on clay this year and she’s dropped only three sets on the surface (not counting the second set of her one clay loss, a retirement at Fed Cup when she was trailing Lesia Tsurenko 1-6, 0-3). Given the quick turnaround, I don’t expect too much from her in Madrid, though if she can get past Agnieszka Radwanska in the second round, there’s no reason to think she can’t make the semifinals. But look out for her when she plays Rome.

Philipp Kohlschreiber: A. The No. 1 German done good in Munich, capturing his second title at the BMW Open, where he knocked off Feliciano Lopez in the semifinals and Marin Cilic in the final. I guess the guy just really loves Bimmers.

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