First Serve: May 10-16

Reading between the lines: TENNIS.com's Monday morning quarterback recaps last week's pro tennis action—and offers his reaction.

Last Week's Tournaments

Be Glad You Missed It
Seen during last Monday’s coverage of Madrid:

—Loose shots: In the night match, Benjamin Becker raced to a 6-0, 4-0 lead against Carlos Moya before the crowd favorite mercifully got on the scoreboard. Moya, who turns 34 in August and is currently No. 514 in the rankings, had nothing on his serve or groundstrokes, which were set up like a tee-ball for Becker to slug at.
—Loose shorts: Gael Monfils experienced a wardrobe malfunction in his match with Stephane Robert. During an early changeover, Monfils, who recently switched from Nike to K-Swiss, changed his trunks because they were too big. How did he not notice this in warm-ups?
—Loose tongue: Down a set and 5-2 against Nicolas Almagro, Viktor Troicki told off the umpire after a questionable call: “You’re the worst official ever.” The outburst loosened up the Serb, who won the next four games. Troicki eventually succumbed in a tiebreaker, shook Almagro’s hand at net, but walked right by the chair ump on his way out.

Four Poor Finishes
For someone with a 26-4 record this season, Venus Williams has been awfully difficult to figure out. She’s won two titles, but all four of her losses have been of the head-scratching variety. In the Australian Open quarters, she practically insisted that Li Na take the match after a rash of errors; in Miami and Rome, Williams failed to mount any sort of challenge against Kim Clijsters and Jelena Jankovic, respectively. This time, in the Madrid final against Aravane Rezai, Venus squandered a 5-2 lead—and six set points—in the second set. Rezai was bold, accurate, and played very well, but the new world No. 2 is displaying an odd pattern in the money rounds of tournaments.

Federer-Nadal, In Haiku
Roger's backhand? Strong.
Familiar patterns emerged
Rafa's plan? Stronger.

Ed McGrogan is an assistant editor for TENNIS.com.