Sloane Stephens, 19, has steadily improved and beat a former top-five player in Rome on Tuesday. (Getty Images)

ROME — Sloane Stephens has never been allergic to Europe’s red clay, and why should she be? A speedy athlete with enough power to get the ball through the court, Stephens has had some of her best results in Europe. Her sole professional title was at an ITF event in Reggio Emelia in Italy last year, which paved the way for her successful qualifying campaign at the French Open.

“Roland Garros is my favorite tournament,” Stephens told SI.com at the Italian Open. “I love Paris.”

Another woman who loves Paris is Serena Williams, and the two bonded while in Ukraine for Fed Cup in April. Asked whether she would get a chance to see Serena’s famed apartment in Paris, Stephens said she wasn’t sure. “I’m not allowed into her residence until I’m 21,” Stephens deadpanned. “So I don’t think that’s gonna happen. I think that’s better for all of us.”

She’s probably right.

Now ranked No. 92 and likely to crack the top 80 after this week, Stephens — whose player credential reads “Skane Stephens” in Rome — won’t have to qualify for the French Open and she’s had some good preparation so far. She’s made it through qualifying in both Estoril and Rome, and on Tuesday she knocked off former world No. 5 Anna Chakvetadze 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 for her first main draw win on clay this year. Stephens fell to Flavia Pennetta 6-2, 6-3 on Wednesday.

SI.com sat down with Stephens after Tuesday’s victory and fired off some questions from our Q&A bag while the 20-year-old American noshed on paella in the players’ dining area. “I think it’s the food here that makes you play good,” she said. Rome definitely treated her well.

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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.”

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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By C.W. Sesno, SI.com

Yes, Serena Williams has a rap song. And quite frankly, it’s not bad. If we’re grading on a scale relative to other songs recently released by tennis players, Serena will be triple platinum by the end of the day. No synthesizer, decent beat and creative lyrics (tennis in a rap song!). It almost doesn’t sound like her, but the proof is in the lyrics:

“They be like, ‘Serena, is you really rappin’?’ That’s me, thanks for listnin’ — Schoolin’ these rappers they should pay tuition.” Need more proof? “Swag out this world you should call me Venus. That’s my sister, my name is Serena, on the court I serve ‘em up, no subpoena.”

She’s got something of a Lil’ Kim sound going on, obviously scaled back on the profanities and vulgarities. It’s unclear who she’s working with and when her debut album will drop, but it seems like Ravens offensive tackle Bryant McKinnie may have had a hand in leaking the track.

Dear @BryantMckinnie I hate you. Lol—
Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) May 11, 2012

Just getting out of workouts & have all these @serenawilliams mentions. What's poppin?—
Bryant Mckinnie (@BryantMckinnie) May 11, 2012

I think Serena has potential for a post-tennis music career. Sound off in the comments with your take on her jam.

The Madrid Open’s new blue clay has caused a wide variety of reactions. (Photos courtesy Kevin Fischer/WTA)

Maria Sharapova described it as “unique.” In Charleston, Serena Williams told me it was “ridiculous.” And Rafael Nadal has been the most vocal critic of all, saying Madrid’s blue clay is an affront to all that is holy in the sport of tennis (paraphrasing, of course). As the players are trickling into Madrid in order to get some early preparation we’re finally beginning to get some feedback as to what the surface is actually like, as opposed to speculation and conjecture.

Initial reactions? It’s messy, it’s slippery, and it’s bouncing lower than usual, which is a key observation given the fact that Madrid’s altitude has typically led to a very fast, high-bouncing court. Oh, and it’s blue. Oh so blue.

After the jump check out some of the players’ initial reactions. I’m sure we’ll get more as the tournament nears.

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Three players have gone down with horrible ankle injuries in Monte Carlo this week, and Rafael Nadal suspects there might be something wrong with the court surface. Juan Monaco, Julien Benneteau and Sebastien Couberes (in qualies) all retired from their matches this week due to ankle sprains, and in Benneteau’s case, the fall also resulted in a fractured elbow, ruling him out of Roland Garros.

Below is Benneteau’s fall Thursday against Andy Murray. (Warning: The below videos show painful injuries. Watch at your own discretion.)

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Don Cherry is a legendary hockey commentator for CBC television in Canada. As we all know, Canadians take their hockey very seriously and as such, Cherry seems to take great umbrage to the amount of criticism that has been levied against the sport given the amount of cheap shots and fighting that has taken over the NHL playoffs this year. In 2011, the NHL playoffs concluded with 12 fights total. We’re not even through the first round of playoffs in 2012 and they’ve already tallied 11 scuffles.

Cherry doesn’t want to hear your whining about how this goon-style violence is a disgrace to the sport of hockey. He isn’t having any of it, and he took to the air on Monday night to effectively say the sport has always been this violent, it’s the way the game is supposed to be played, and if people have a problem with it they should go take up a wimpy sport. And when it came time to identify that wimpy sport, Cherry dropped his gloves and went for tennis’ collar.

“Quit whining that this stuff hasn’t been goin’ on and it’s not hockey,” Cherry said during his “Coaches Corner” broadcast on CBC (at about the 6:25 mark in the above video). “It’s hockey the way it’s played. If you don’t like it, take up tennis. I can see these guys playing tennis, these reporters, playing tennis, ‘Oh, sweet-love’, in their little white shorts.” Based on his sarcastic tone, I don’t think Cherry was speaking admirably of Victoria Azarenka’s Slam-winning fashion.

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Some couples, like Caroline Wozniacki and Rory McIlroy, may find playing tennis together fun, but not so much for Andy Roddick and his wife, Brooklyn Decker. In an interview with Women’s Health magazine, B-Decks recounts the one time Andy tried to give her lessons:

“I ended up hitting all the tennis balls over the fence and smashing my racket because I was so frustrated. I told him, ‘You don’t teach me how to play tennis, and I won’t teach you how to model in a bathing suit.’ And so far, it’s worked.”

Oh, Brooklyn. You’ve been watching Andy play tennis for far too long.

But seriously, as this video shows, there’s no way Roddick is better at modeling than Decker is at tennis.

When Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic fired a backhand passing shot to seal a 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 9-7 victory against the Czech Republic’s Radek Stepanek on Day 1 of the Davis Cup quarterfinals on Friday, he let out a boisterous celebration and then jogged to the net to share a standard handshake with his opponent. What was waiting for him was anything but standard.

Unfortunately, the television cameras cut to a rowdy Serbian bench and missed the net exchange between the two after their five-hour match. But by the time the focus returned to the players, Tipsarevic was angrily yelling at Stepanek and had to be restrained by his captain.

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When asked by Czech reporters what instigated the incident, Tipsarevic didn’t mince words:

“I would just like all of you to know what kind of person is Radek Stepanek. I have this thing that I always believe in the best in people, and even though players are telling that he can be not so nice on the court, I never believed it, even though I played him three times.

As you can see my behavior on the court was, I think, fair enough. When he fell, I crossed the net to see if he needs help. I was always letting him go past the net first. I even two times admitted a ball (was in) that was questionable. After five hours and 10 minutes instead of shaking my hand, he gave me he the middle finger and told me I am “stinking” … something bad, it’s a swear word. Let’s just say “vagina”. I just say it like that. I just want you to know what kind of person is your Czech player, Radek Stepanek.”

Stepanek, though, saw things differently. “We normally shook hands,” he said. Czech captain Jaroslav Navratil didn’t exactly rush to his man’s defense, saying, “Radek may have told him something, but I was too far from them [to hear].”

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By C.W. Sesno, SI.com

From music videos to shopping addictions to ping-pong, here’s the best from the week in the tennis Twitterverse.

Tweet of the week: After hearing the production, seeing it is quite a frightening thought.

A couple of busy days in Poland, shooting a music video for the charity song I recorded:)—
Caroline Wozniacki (@CaroWozniacki) April 03, 2012

Best of the Rest

10. Serena’s steps to recovery: Admitting you have a problem is the first step.

I can tell I am addicted to online shopping because I just ordered a tent and sleeping bags.—
Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) April 06, 2012

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