“It didn’t go how I hoped and I was missing too many easy forehands and crucial points,” Federer said. “He does an incredible job returning from the back of the court and it is hard because he covers the court so well.”

Third edition of the tournament takes place at the Royal Primerose Tennis Club in Brussels…wildcards went to Brit Elena Baltacha, Belgiuan Alison Van Uytvanck, and the top seed Wozniacki…Pulling from the event were Irina-Camelia Begu, Simona Halep, Kristina Mladenovic, Ayumi Morita and Aggie Radwanska…Radwanska beat Halep in last year’s final…The country that produced recent No. 1s Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin now has no players in the Top 20 and only two in the Top 100…Interesting qualifying field contains former world No. 1 junior Taylor Townsend, Shahar Peer and former US Open sensation Melanie Oudin…Wozniacki (2011) is the lone returning former champ in the field.

The long-running Davis Cup-style ATP World Team Cup is no more, this year replaced by a 250-level tournament at The Rochusclub in Düsseldorf…Tough starts for (8) Davydenko vs. Tursunov, and 2nd rd. (2) Haas vs. Dodig…Wildcards went to Benjamin Becker, Haas and Juan Monaco…Pulls from the event included Nicolas Almagro, Grigor Dimitrov, Florian Mayer, Philipp Petzschner and Mikhail Youzhny.

There were no women’s seeded upsets at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia Monday in Rome, but former No. 1 Venus Williams, French Open winner Francesca Schiavone, and former No. 2-ranked Svetlana Kuznetsova were all sent packing, all unseeded, on the red clay.

Sadder news for U.S. men’s tennis? They were the Top 2 ranked players for the U.S. Sadder still? Both were unseeded in the 16-seeded field. Sadder still? Never mind, this can go on and on.

Nadal scarily did not play his best tennis during the week but trumped a field containing world No. 1 Novak Djokovic and GOAT Roger Federer.

Can Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer right the ship in Rome or will Rafael Nadal defend his 2012 title?

“I obviously didn’t do much in the second set, which gave her a lot of confidence to play better,” Williams said. “And then I thought she played really well after that in the third…I’m going to go back to the way I have been playing and being more calm and not making as many unforced errors as I did out there today.”

“I was complaining a little bit that these things weren’t working, so I think I just needed some positive words from Martina out there,” Pavlyuchenkova said. “She told me to keep playing my game and be more aggressive, and other things. It really helped.”

Notes: Insane field with two former No. 1s and an additional Slam champ all unseeded…The Top 3 seeds are current or former No. 1s…Tough opening-round matches are (5) Na vs. Tamira Paszek then the winner of Venus and (WC) Medina Garrigues, (3) Azarenka vs. Pavlyuchenkova, (11) Petrova vs. a qualifier then likely Kuznetsova, (16) Ivanovic vs. a qualifier then likely her Serb countrywoman Jankovic, (9) Stosur vs. the clay-savvy Suarez Navarro, and (2) Sharapova vs. a qualifier then likely Peng…No blue clay this year…Former champs in the field are Serena Williams (2012) and Kvitova (2011).