The Berd Man took the scalp of a No. 1

After he upset clay court king Rafael Nadal in the final of Monte Carlo, the thought was that just like in 2011 Novak Djokovic was in prime position to end the Spaniards run in Paris. In fact after he battled his way to the French Open final in 2012, he looked like he had a very good shot, too, but a rain break killed his momentum and Nadal ended his dream the next day to snare his seventh title. So what to say now of the world No. 1 after  Tomas Berdych scored only his second victory in 15 clashes against the Serbian with 2-6 7-5 6-4 upset in Rome? Down 2-5 in the second set, the powerful and consistent Czech dictated play much of the rest of the afternoon and didn’t allow Djokovic to yank him around as he normally does. Throw in Djokovic’s loss to Grigor Dimitrov last week in Rome and you have a man who is surely the No.2 favorite in Paris, but also a man who has shown a wee bit of vulnerability against some other talented players outside of the Big 4. His time Paris should be very interesting.

“I lost concentration and started to play more defensively,” Djokovic said. “[I played] a bad game at 5-3 and I made some unforced errors. At this level you have to take advantage of the opportunities and I lost this game by myself.”

Berdych will now face Nadal, who once again had his way with David Ferrer in a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 victory. Nadal looked a bit tired after his emotional win over the trash talking Ernests Gulbis in the quarters, but once it got to closing time against Ferrer he was the more competent and heady player.

“I played a great match against a difficult opponent. In the worst moment in the third set, I played my best tennis and I am happy,” said Nadal. “

Nadal has played a ton since his comeback in February, but there is a lot on the table for him in Rome: should he win the title, he would overtake Ferrer at No. 4 and therefore be seeded at least No. 4 at Roland Garros and possibly higher if the injured Andy Murray (back trouble) opts out. Nadal has a 13-3 record over Berdych and has never lost to him on clay, but some of their previous match-ups have been very entertaining, so if the Czech can get on top of the ball and not allow Nadal to force him to go for winners when he is off balance, then he has at least a 20 percent chance of pulling an upset.

The mercurial  Frenchman Benoit Paire reached his first Masters semifinal with a 6-1 6-win over Marcel Granollers and will face Roger Federer, who did a good job of repelling Jerzy Janowicz 6-4 7-6(2). Paire has a puncher’s chance against the Swiss, but not much more.

On the women’s side, Maria Sharapova withdrew from her quarterfinal with Sara Errani because of a bad cold that returned and induced a fever. Sharapova was told by a doctor to get some rest or her condition could worsen and there is no way she’s going to risk that when she has to defend her Roland Garros title.

“Its one of those things and the body is not ready and with a bigger goal around the corner its important to make the right and smart decisions and I have a lot of clay matches and so this is not lacking before the French Open,” she said.

So Errani now has the pleasure of trying to figure our Victoria Azarenka whom in her first tournament back since Indian Wells was darn impressive later in hitting through Sam Stosur 6-4 1-6 6-3. Azarenka has never been a standout player on dirt and a win over a quality foe on clay such as Stosur has to be a huge mental boost. If she can best Errani and then at least give Serena Williams a tussle should they meet in the final, then she will feel very good entering Roland Garros.

“It’s all a process – I’m just trying to improve day to day, and I feel it’s happening,” Azarenka said. “I will probably never be truly satisfied, but I’m on a good road.”

Williams overwhelmed Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2 6-0 and will face qualifier Simona Halep in the semis, who took down Jelena Jankovic in a long three setter. The 21-year-old Romanian is scrappy and can also belt the ball, but facing Williams after such an exhausting encounter against Jankovic is a tall order.

The legendary Williams is once again riding a hot streak

Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams entered Madrid and Rome as the favorites and exited both locales with the same tag headed into Roland Garros: they won the Italian Open titles on Sunday by identical scores: 6-1 6-3, Williams beginning the day by zoning on Victoria Azarenka, and Nadal ending the day by doing much the same against Roger Federer.

However, while Nadal is more or less a substantial favorite to win his eight crown at Roland Garros, Serena is not to win her second: the Spaniard has proven time and time again that he can handle anyone (including No. 1 Novak Djokovic last year, who is the only man of the planet who looks capable of stopping him) and anything that is thrown his way, including the enigmatic crowds in Paris, but Serena has not since she won the title in 2002.

Williams has had some impressive wins there, but since her extremely emotional three-set defeat to Ms. Henin in the Hand of Justine match in 2003, she’s been all over the map in Paris. She has taken three other close three sets losses that at other Slams may not have occurred: to Jennifer Capriati, to Svetlana Kuznetsova and to Sam Stosur. And then there were the two odd and unexpected shockers to lesser players such as Katarina Srebotnik and then last year, her first round loss ever at a major to Virginia Razzano, which she admitted was a total choke.

As she showed against Azarenka on similar red clay to that of Paris, Serena clearly has the game to win the French again. Over the past year, she’s clearly been the best player on tour when healthy, and to some degree, even when she wasn’t. Her serve is clicking, she is reflexing returns winners to all angles of the court, moving very well and for the most part staying steady and eventually lethal off the ground. But she has said time and time again that she doesn’t understand why the French crowds don’t take to her, especially because she has owned an apartment in Paris for at least three years.

But this time around she have a not so secret weapon in her corner: coach Patrick Mouratoglou, a Frenchman who has done terrific work with her over the past year and should be able to help her mentally negotiate why the Parisian fans act in certain ways. This is Mouratoglou’s biggest test to date as he started coaching her right after her loss to Razzano last year and this is the first time Serena has played in Paris under his watch.

Azarenka actually played fairly well on Sunday, but her serve let her down and as good as she is on hard courts and as impressive as she was in Rome overall, she is just not as effective sliding into her groundstrokes as she is when planting her feet.  But at the very least, she made herself a top 5 contender in Paris with Serena, Maria Sharapova, Li Na and Sara Errani. In my book, Ana Ivanovic has now dropped down to the No. 6 contender.

“She is playing incredible tennis and is playing at her best level for a year and a half and next week, I don’t know and today she played better than me in some moments but I am excited about the next matches.” Azarenka said of Serena.

When it comes to playing fairly well in a defeat, the same could not be said of Federer except for maybe five games of his defeat. Nadal once again  overwhelmed him outdoors on a slower surface, hammering forehands into Federer’s one-handed backhand, serving accurately (and not just at the Swiss’ backhand, which allows him to be more effective with his twisting lefty serve) and taking big cuts with his groundstrokes, which resulted in high hopping balls that are very difficult to punish. He’s now 20-10 against Federer, a statistic that could eventually weight very heavily as to who the greatest player ever is. For now that man is Federer with his 17 Slams, but Nadal and his 11 Slams plus his impressive resume against his rival could eventually be the guy, should his chronically sore knees hold up.
“I didn’t play offensive and then he puts me far back with the ball and so you have to use your opportunities and he does an incredible job returning from the back of the court,” Federer said. “It is hard to do because he covers the court so well and you need to serve accurate and then he battles on the baseline. This is when Rafa is at his best and so he created opportunities within the rally.”

Notable

The USTA and ESPN struck a massive deal that will give the cable giant 11 years of TV rights to the US Open. CBS is out. Here’s my piece. Rafael Nadal and Ernest Gulbis exchanged some words. Aga Radwanska’s shoulder hurts and she pulled out of Brussels. She’s worried about RG and Wimbledon too. Juan Martin Del Potro has flown back to Argentina to try and get physically right prior to the French but may not be able to. In the upcoming issue of Tennis-Journal, Sharapova’s former coach Michael Joyce discusses why she can’t beat Serena. Maria also talks to me about the affect that off-court relationships can have on court. I also break down Nadal and Djokovic stroke for stroke on clay and how one can beat the other.

The last player to beat both Williams sisters as a teenager at a tournament was Kim Clijsters as a 19-year-old back at the 2002 WTA Championships. As promising as a player as she is and the Briton clearly has at least top 20 stuff, Laura Robson is not as advanced as the Belgian was at the age. After upsetting a physically struggling Venus Williams in her opening match in Rome, Robson went down to No 1 Serena Williams 6-2, 6-2.

The left-handed Robson did crack some winners in the contest but committed way too many unforced errors and, against as player as powerful and consistent as Serena (consistent being the key word here), that is not going to get it done. Robson is currently working with Adidas Player Development coach Sven Groeneveld, who surely must be trying to help get her serve under control, as her toss is all over the place. She

Maria will try and stop a long losing streak to Serena.

Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams will both try and reach a round number on Sunday when they face off for the 15th time, on this occasion in the final of Madrid.

Williams will be going for the 50^th title, while Sharapova will go for No. 30. They have clearly been the WTA

As well as he

John Tomic, the father and coach of Bernard Tomic, was allegedly arrested three days ago prior to the Madrid tournament for allegedly head butting and breaking the nose of his son

Andy Murray must adapt well to a change of surface next month if he is to win a third Queens title before Wimbledon after three former champions confirmed they will join the Aegon Championships field.

Last year

Pavlyuchenkova wins Estoril, Ferrer vs Stan in men’s final. Rafa won’t get seeding bump at RG

By Matt Cronin

Coach Martina Hingis (which still sounds odd ) deserves a lot of credit for Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova