Venus and Serena Williams won doubles gold at the Beijing Olympics despite a less than stellar commitment to Fed Cup. (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

In last week’s Toss, SI.com tennis producer C.W. Sesno came on to discuss the recent stability at the top of the WTA, a change from the last four years. Here to stay, or another fad? The readers have spoken, but barely: 56 percent of poll takers think the WTA’s top four will remain competitive at the top of the rankings.

This week, tennis blogger Ben Rothenberg joins The Toss to delve into the recent changes the ITF put in place for qualifying for the 2016 Olympics.

Today’s Toss: Should there be separate Olympic qualification requirements for tennis players?

Courtney Nguyen: Thanks for joining me this week, Ben. I don’t know about you, but the “B”, “L”, “U” and “E” keys on my laptop are no longer functioning thanks to Madrid, so let’s do everyone a favor and not talk about that whole mess. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather have Olympic fever than a bad case of the blues.

Before we dive into this debate a bit of background is in order. The ITF recently announced a significant change in the qualification rules for the 2016 Olympics. Currently, players must make themselves available for two Davis Cup or Fed Cup ties in the two years before the Olympics, hence Serena Williams’ recent sojourn to Kharkiv, Ukraine in April. But beginning after the London Olympics, players will have to make themselves available to play four times in an Olympic cycle. It’s fairly obvious that the impetus for the change is to use Olympic qualifying as a way to get players to commit more regularly to Davis Cup and Fed Cup, competitions that are run by the ITF. The change hasn’t gone down well with the top players, who have complained that it forces them to play more in a season that is already long and grueling.

We can talk about whether the changes are good or bad but I thought it would be fun to discuss an even broader issue: Should there even be Olympic qualification rules for tennis players? Why not just do a modified direct acceptance scheme (limiting the number of players from a single country) like they do at the Slams, which is based entirely on ranking?

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Tomas Berdych upset Andy Murray on Friday to reach the Monte Carlo semifinals. (Getty Images)

1. Is Tomas Berdych the ATP No. 5?: Berdych is through to the Monte Carlo semifinals after upsetting Andy Murray today, 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-3. It wasn’t a great performance from Murray, who struggled with his forehand all day, though Berdych was solid, proving once again that the idea that big men can’t play on clay should go out with the trash.

I’ve been impressed that Berdych has been able to gradually improve over the last two years and become a mainstay in the top 10. The Czech always had top 10 tools, hitting big from the baseline, but his propensity to choke away matches was pretty legendary. Ever since his Wimbledon final run in 2010, Berdych found his belief and his swagger and he got … mean. Where he used to have a reputation for being soft and relatively shy or soft-spoken with the press, there’s a newfound edge about the guy now. Ask a question that’s slightly critical and he’ll give you a dismissive and smug answer while looking at you dead in the eye. To be clear, he’s not rude, snippy, or defensive about it. It just seems like he’s embraced his role as the spoiler and the bad guy and he’s OK with it now. Whatever it is, it’s working for him on court.

In my mind, he’s the ATP No. 5 right now.

2. Fed Cup roundup: What does Russian Fed Cup captain Shamil Tarpischev know that we don’t? Despite the fact that Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova is 3-8 in 2012 and hasn’t beaten anyone in the top 40 in a completed match this year, Tarpischev chosen to nominate her for singles on Saturday against Serbia. In fact, Pavlyuchenkova hasn’t beaten anyone in the top 20 in a completed match since the U.S. Open, though one of the players she did beat back then was Jelena Jankovic, who she’ll  play on Saturday. No love for Maria Kirilenko, Tarpi? Saving her for singles and doubles on Sunday? We’ll see.

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Rafael Nadal has won seven straight titles at the Monte Carlo Masters. (Julian Finney/Getty Images)

The Watch List spotlights the must-know storylines for the upcoming week in tennis. This week, Rafael Nadal aims for his eighth straight Monte Carlo title, while the Fed Cup features some intriguing ties.

Monte Carlo

Cliche alert: What happens when immovable object meets unstoppable force? Rafael Nadal hasn’t lost in Monte Carlo since 2003 (his first year playing the event) and he’s going for a jaw-dropping eighth straight title there. Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic, the man who owned him in 2011 and beat him twice on clay last year, has decided to crash the party and kick off his French Open tune-up campaign in Rafa’s sandbox. How dominant has Nadal been in Monte Carlo? In the last five years he’s lost only two sets. To say he’s comfortable in Monte Carlo is an understatement.

So what do we make of his chances this year? Nadal withdrew from the semifinals of Miami because of tendinitis in his left knee, and though he’s still in the No. 2 spot, he hasn’t won a title since Roland Garros. But Rafa’s always been able to get his feet back under him in Monte Carlo. Needless to say, a clash between the top two seeds in the final would clearly set the tone for the rest of the clay season.

Of course, both guys need to get to the final, which is no guarantee. Djokovic has the tougher half of the draw, with last year’s finalist, David Ferrer, in his quarter (see the complete draw here). A freshly shorn Andy Murray, who is one of two men in the draw who has taken a set off Nadal in Monte Carlo, has also been drawn into Djokovic’s half. But Murray, who defeated Djokovic earlier this year in Dubai, has never beaten the Serb on clay, and he has a tricky path to the semis himself.

Murray has Victor Troicki in the second round, and could face Jurgen Melzer and Tomas Berdych along the way. All winnable matches for Murray, and yet, would it surprise anyone if he lost one? For the first time in his career, Murray comes into the clay season with a good amount of pressure to back up his strong 2011 results (semifinalist in Monte Carlo, Rome and Roland Garros).

Nadal, on the other hand, shouldn’t face much resistance until the quarterfinals, where he could face fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro (who has never beaten Nadal in seven attempts). From there, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is the only potential semifinalist who could give Rafa problems, but the fact is we don’t call him the Clay G.O.A.T. for nothing. I suspect he’ll make it through to the finals with nary a peep (assuming he’s healthy, of course).

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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 Fed Cup kicks off this weekend, with the Czech Republic starting its title defense against Germany. The Williams sisters are back in the lineup as the U.S. gets set to take on Victoria Azarenka and the Belarusians, while Maria Sharapova prepares to lead Russia against Spain.

Check out some photos below as draw ceremonies unfold and teams make last-minute preparations.

Fed Cup: Sharapova set for Russian opener | Venus Williams excited to play again