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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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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Despite admitting clay is her worst surface, Maria Sharapova beat three reigning major champions to win Stuttgart. (Getty Images)

The Report Card hands out grades for the week in tennis. This past week, the ATP stopped at another of Rafael Nadal’s stomping grounds, and Maria Sharapova broke through on her worst surface.

Maria Sharapova: A-plus. The book on Sharapova all season has been her inability to bring her best when it mattered the most. Going into Sunday’s final against Victoria Azarenka, Sharapova had reached the final of three of the four tournaments she had played in 2012 (Australian Open, Indian Wells and Miami) and failed to take a set in any of them. So leave it to Sharapova to come into Stuttgart, a tournament she had never played before, and resoundingly beat a player against whom she had lost badly twice. Oh, and did we mention it was on clay, her worst surface? And in case people were waiting in the wings to throw out the “cupcake draw” defense, well, you’re going to have to wait a few weeks. Sharapova beat three reigning Grand Slam champions in three days — Sam Stosur, Petra Kvitova and Azarenka. In fact, her three-set tussle with Stosur in the quarterfinals and her tightly contested semifinal against Petra Kvitova are two of the best WTA matches we’ve seen all year.

Rafael Nadal: A-plus. The stats just keep on coming for Nadal, who captured his seventh Barcelona title with a 7-6 (1), 7-5 win over David Ferrer. Nadal became the first man to win two tournaments at least seven times each (he has eight consecutive Monte Carlo titles) and has a chance to claim his seventh French Open title this year. Through two tournaments, Nadal has yet to drop a set on clay this year and he’s running a 77-match winning streak in the month of April.

Gilles Simon: A. There’s just something about Bucharest that sits well with Simon. It probably helps that most of the top clay-courters are in Barcelona the same week, but that won’t matter much to Simon, who took his first title of 2012 without beating anyone in the top 50. The skinny Frenchman has turned his season around nicely in the past month and a half and he’s now right outside the top 10 at No. 11.

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Jelena Jankovic led Serbia to its first Fed Cup final. (Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty Images)

The Report Card hands out grades for the best and worst from the week in tennis.

Rafael Nadal: A-plus. After a 15-day layoff to rest his ailing knee, Nadal didn’t drop a set in Monte Carlo, finally beat Novak Djokovic in a final (6-3, 6-1) after seven straight losses and won this event for the eighth consecutive time. He leaves Monaco with his confidence high from playing the right way and, perhaps most important, he’s relatively injury-free. Next stop: Barcelona.

Novak Djokovic: A. Look, I’m not in the business of knocking a guy whose grandfather just died. Djokovic’s tennis wasn’t great all week and he was completely checked out during that final, playing by far his worst match in almost two years. But even in a subpar week, Djokovic continued to reveal his character. He could have packed up and left after learning of his grandfather’s death, but as a professional, he had a job to do so he stuck around and did it the best he could. How many of us have had to miss family events because of pressing professional matters? Tennis players, they’re just like us.

Jelena Jankovic: A. I was joking with a friend last week that while most top players have “Beast Mode” when they’re in the zone, Jankovic has “Hero Mode” when it comes to Fed Cup. Much like Argentina’s David Nalbandian in Davis Cup, Jankovic is able to summon the big performance needed to keep the Serbs in contention, though she can also be the source of tension within the team’s camp. All she’s ever needed was for her compatriot Ana Ivanovic to show up (sometimes literally, sometimes figuratively) and do her part. To put it in baseball terms, JJ’s the closer and Ivanovic is the set-up reliever. In upsetting Russia in Moscow over the weekend, the two players played their parts perfectly. Ivanovic’s comeback win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Sunday gave the Serbs a 2-1 lead and set the stage for Jankovic, who clinched Serbia’s first Fed Cup final appearance with a straight-set win over Svetlana Kuznetsova.

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The Report Card hands out grades for the best and worst from the week in tennis. This week, we focus on the Men’s Clay Championship in Houston and WTA stops in Barcelona and Copenhagen.

John Isner improved to 20-7 in reaching the Houston final, surpassing Mardy Fish as the top-ranked American. (Andrew Richardson/Icon SMI)

John Isner: B-plus. By beating Feliciano Lopez in the Houston semifinals, Isner officially relieved Mardy Fish of his duties as the American No. 1, becoming the 12th man to hold the distinction since 1973. He had a chance to punctuate the achievement with his first title of the year but ran into an in-form Juan Monaco in the final, losing out to the Argentine, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.

But all in all it was a good week for Isner, who definitely wasn’t at his best but battled for two comeback wins over Horacio Zeballos (6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-2) and Feliciano Lopez (6-7 (5), 7-6 (4), 6-3) to get to the final. So congrats, Big John. You are officially the No. 1 American, a serious threat on clay, and no longer known simply as that tall guy who played for 32 days at Wimbledon that one time. It was 32 days, right?

Angelique Kerber: A-plus. Remember last September when everyone was left scratching their heads as Angelique Kerber, then ranked No. 92, made one of the more improbable runs to the U.S. Open semifinals? Let’s just say the word “fluke” was being bounced around with regularity during that fortnight.

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John Isner has led the United States into the Davis Cup semifinals. (Remy de la Mauviniere/AP)

The Report Card hands out grades for the best and worst from the week in tennis. This week, we focus on the Davis Cup quarterfinals and the Family Circle Cup, where Serena Williams won the title in impressive fashion.

John Isner: A-plus. It’s one thing to flourish in your individual career; it’s another thing to do it at Davis Cup, a format that can make even the strongest and most talented competitors wilt. Isner seems to relish anchoring the U.S. team. He did it again over the weekend with convincing victories against France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gilles Simon, leading the United States into the semifinals against defending champion Spain in September. The former University of Georgia star is a great testament to how college tennis can forge competitors who can handle the pressure of having your teammates and coach counting on you.

Jim Courier: A. Let’s just start calling him “The John Whisperer.” Captain Courier just seems to know what it takes to get the best from Isner, who, of course, also knocked off Roger Federer in Davis Cup play this year. Courier also handled the last-minute shuffle resulting from Mardy Fish’s unexpected withdrawal perfectly. Instead of scrambling to try to get Andy Roddick or Sam Querrey to travel to France, Courier gave 19-year-old Ryan Harrison a chance at his first live rubber. The eager Harrison may have lost, but Courier’s decision to invest in the future will pay dividends down the road.

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Roger Federer made the BNP Paribas Open his third title in a row. (Harry How/Getty Images)

The Report Card hands out grades for the best and worst from the week in tennis. This week, we focus on the last two weeks at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif.

Roger Federer: A. Federer had already accepted the fact that maybe this wasn’t going to be his tournament when he arrived under the weather. So he stayed focused on the task immediately in front of him and didn’t look ahead to any potential showdown with Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic or anyone else. Through his first three matches, Federer looked all kinds of wrong as he misfired badly from both wings, particularly the forehand.  But much like a pilot might do to a sputtering plane, Federer knew exactly which engines to shut down, how to regulate his fuel over the long haul and which weapons to engage while he fought through to the quarterfinals. Once he got there, all systems were go and Federer didn’t drop a set in dismissing Juan Martin del Potro, Nadal and John Isner to capture his third straight title and improve to 39-2 since last year’s U.S. Open.

Victoria Azarenka: A. I’m beginning to wonder what would have happened if Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka swapped brains. Overall, they have the same tools: above-average movement, good court sense, an average serve and solid groundstrokes. The difference is how they choose to use them. On a medium-paced, slightly short ball, Wozniacki doesn’t mind rolling it in at an angle to open up the court in hopes of goading her opponent into an error. On the other hand, Azarenka skips toward the ball and simply puts it away. Being offensive comes naturally to Azarenka and it’s something that Wozniacki hasn’t convinced herself to do.

John Isner: A. Welcome to the top 10, Johnny. Now to reel in the Big Fish and become the No. 1 American. If Isner’s Davis Cup win over Federer didn’t convince you, his gutsy performance against Djokovic in the Indian Wells semifinals should have. The forehand-return winner he hit to go up 4-2 in the third-set tiebreaker is everything you need to know about Isner right now: He has the confidence to go for that shot in big moments and the skill to execute it.

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The Report Card hands out grades for the best and worst from the week of tennis. This week, the focus is on Roger Federer’s win in Dubai, struggling Americans in Delray Beach and looking at form as both Tours head to Indian Wells.

The Champions

Roger Federer won his second title of the year, beating Andy Murray in the Dubai Championships. (Ali Haider/EPA)

Roger Federer: A. The Swiss Maestro won his 72nd ATP title, fifth in Dubai and second title in three weeks. He’s won five of his last seven ATP Tour events and he’s 16-2 on the year. Coming out of the post-Australian Open swing, he’s the man who’s surging. So what are we to make of it all? Is Roger “back” or are his recent numbers inflated given the fact that his last five ATP tour wins have been on quick hard courts? Put aside his lengthy resume. Right now Federer is in the same position as Murray in my mind: Show us you can win the big tournaments and then we’ll talk.

Sara Errani: A. Errani beat the top two seeds (and her countrywomen) on the way to winning the title in Acapulco. She took down top-seeded Roberta Vinci 6-4, 6-1 in the semifinals and second-seeded Flavia Pennetta 5-7, 7-6 (2), 6-0 in the final. What’s more, Errani then teamed up with Vinci to take the doubles title as well, becoming the first woman to sweep both events at a WTA tournament since April 2010.

The Italian has had a strong start to 2012, making the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and the semifinals of Monterrey, where she lost to eventual champion Timea Babos. Further proof of consistency? She’s No. 6 in the Race to the WTA Championships rankings. All in all, it’s been a good year so far for the Italians not named Francesca Schiavone.

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Agnieszka Radwanska dropped Julia Goerges in Dubai on Sunday to capture her eighth career WTA title. (Karim Sahib/Getty Images)

The Report Card hands out grades for the best and worst from the week of tennis.

Agnieszka Radwanska: B-minus. Radwanska won her eighth career title in Dubai on Sunday, defeating a strong Julia Goerges in the final 7-5, 6-4. The Pole looked to be on her way out in the first round and had to battle back from 3-5 down in the third set to Canadian Aleksandra Wozniack to win. Once she got that out of her system, it was relatively smooth sailing for the new World No. 5. She only dropped one set the rest of the week (though she didn’t face anyone ranked higher than No. 13). This is what Radwanska does, she beats the players she’s supposed to beat.

Dubai will be remembered as much for Radwanksa’s on-court performance as her off-court comments. This is where Radwanska decided to put Victoria Azarenka on blast, saying that she lost respect for the world’s No. 1 player after her injury-related histrionics in Doha. To put these comments into context, Radwanska has lost three matches this year, all to Azarenka (Sydney, Australian Open, Doha). The frustration of having her tournaments repeatedly end at the hands of her junior rival must have finally boiled over.

Maybe letting off steam helped Radwanska. She did after all go on to win the title in Dubai and didn’t seem fazed at all about how her comments might go over in the locker room. But next to Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova, I would put Azarenka on the list of players to whom you don’t want to go give bulletin board material. She’s not really a “water under the bridge” type of player, if you know what I mean.

Juan Martin del Potro: A. Slowly but surely, the 2009 U.S. Open champion is working his way back. Already back into the top 10, Del Potro is now on a quest to build his confidence against the top players. In the past two weeks he’s beaten Tomas Berdych and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and his title in Marseille (defeating Michael Llodra, 6-4, 6-4) was his first of the season and 10th of his career.

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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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