Andy Murray and Serena Williams Top Winners and Losers at 2016 Italian Open

Andy Murray streaked past Novak Djokovic for Rome’s Italian Open championship. Is the Scot the new obstacle for the Serb’s quest to finally win the French Open? Rome certainly opened things up a little more and promised that things will not be easy for anyone.

Meanwhile, Serena Williams bounced back with her biggest title in nine months. At the least, she provides more stability to the top of the WTA tour a week after Simona Halep capped off her own mini comeback with the Madrid trophy.

All this and more in this week’s edition of “Winners and Losers,” where we evaluate Rome’s results as appetizers to the 2016 French Open. Buon appetito!

Loser: Victoria Azarenka

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Nobody is going to write off Victoria Azarenka at the French Open, but her shaky play on clay is a far cry from her hard-court dominance at Indian Wells and Miami in March.

Azarenka bowed out 6-3, 6-2 in her only match, but the biggest concern was her troublesome back that caused her to withdraw from the third round at the Madrid Open.

According to Tennis.com, in her post-match press conference, she said: “I was trying, but it didn’t work. The back’s not good right now. We’ll see what happens. I don’t know what to tell you. I’m very disappointed, obviously, with that. I thought I was OK and was ready to play, and came back, so I’m just disappointed.”

It’s a grim turn for Azarenka who hopes to compete for the French Open title on a challenging surface for her footwork and game. It’s one thing to suddenly get healthy, but her timing and confidence may not be optimum after the fall at Rome.

Winner: Lucas Pouille

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It’s fairly common for a surprising player to make a run at a level-250 or level-500 title when the top players are absent. But seizing the luck of the draw and capitalizing at a Masters 1000 tournament happens about as often as a blue moon.

A week at Rome was the biggest opportunity in Lucas Pouille's young career.

The 22-year-old Frenchman, ranked No. 51, was only allowed into the Rome draw when compatriot Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had to withdraw. He got the inherited first-round bye, a tough three-set victory over inconsistent Ernests Gulbis and a brilliant 6-4, 6-1 effort over David Ferrer. Then quarterfinal opponent Juan Monaco withdrew, and Pouille walked into the semifinals.

Never mind Andy Murray hammered him in one hour.

Pouille is projected to move to No. 31 in the rankings—not bad for someone with a career 29-32 record. He has also proved to be a fine young clay-court player. He defeated David Goffin at Madrid and won against Richard Gasquet in Monte Carlo.

Maybe he will bring the luck for a few rounds at Roland Garros.

Loser: Importance of the Djokovic-Nadal Quarterfinal

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There’s a reason this “loser slide” is sandwiched near the beginning. A quarterfinal appearance at Rome between world No. 1 Djokovic and a resurgent Nadal proved to be nothing more than an entertaining close match.

While the Spaniard blew chances to win both sets, Djokovic did enough to once again prove his mental dominance. There’s nothing to add or change about either player’s chances to win the French Open. It’s Djokovic’s tournament to lose and Nadal’s need to play an absolutely perfect match (with a better serve and backhand) to beat the Serbian. That is if they even meet at Roland Garros.

Next story, please.

Winner: Kei Nishikori

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We’ll forgive Kei Nishikori for blowing his 3-2 lead in the third-set tiebreaker including a few loose errors and a double-fault. The Japanese star was right there to upset Novak Djokovic after breaking the world No. 1 twice in the first set and later battling back down a break in the third. He even bounced back from match point at 4-5.

In the end, King Novak raised his arms in triumph after eking out the semifinal win in wet, humid conditions.

Nishikori can at least hold his head high. He had another very strong clay-court season with key wins over Nick Kyrgios and Dominic Thiem to make back-to-back Masters 1000 semifinals. Were it not for Rafael Nadal’s win in the Barcelona final and Djokovic’s two wins at Madrid and Rome, it would have been an extraordinary month with two Masters 1000 title shots at Andy Murray.

Does this make Nishikori the fourth favorite for the French Open title? Given Wawrinka’s struggles and Thiem’s inability to break through at the star-studded venues, he could be ready to suprise at Paris.

Loser: Young Players This Clay-Court Season

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Yes, the Swiss superstars are struggling. Roger Federer’s back is hurting, and we already pulled the plug on Stan Wawrinka’s fading chance to defend the French Open.

Otherwise, the veteran stars are not going to take a back seat to the youngest potential stars on tour in some of the more featured matches.

• Roger Federer handled German phenom Alexander Zverev.
• Rafael Nadal outlasted Nick Kyrgios.
• Kei Nishikori defeated Dominic Thiem after Thiem defeated an ailing Federer.

There were no significant breakthroughs for the last six weeks on clay as the French Open gets ready to create a draw. It’s less likely that Thiem, Kyrgios, Zverev or Borna Coric make a run at Roland Garros after underwhelming stints at Monte Carlo, Madrid and Rome.

They could create an upset against a top star in a big match, but don't count on them conquering all the pressures en route to a French Open title.

Maybe next year.

Winner: Serena Williams

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The WTA tour just didn’t seem the same when Serena Williams was absent or bowing out of tournaments. The tour was unstable with many upsets and difficulties suffered by top-10 players in 2016, except for Victoria Azarenka’s “sunshine double” on American hard courts in March.

Serena may have righted things at the very top after she outhit powerful, young American Madison Keys 7-6(5), 6-3 for the Rome title.

It was a good sign for Serena that she moved well on clay, but Keys expressed what might be the most important reason Serena is still the champion, according to the ATP World Tour: "I think no matter how many times you play Serena, you always go in and you can just feel her presence. That's always an extra thing that you have to be worried about during the match.”

The world No. 1 showed up just in time to take the mantle as the solid favorite at Roland Garros. Will it take pressure off the rest of the contenders who seemed uncomfortable or unable to play at the top? There’s certainly more interest in tennis when Serena plays well.

Loser: Novak Djokovic

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Djokovic was informed of his racket's broken string by the chair umpire during his semifinal match with Kei Nishikori.

There’s really nothing to worry about when it comes to Novak Djokovic. The super dominant Serb is expected to win at a nearly perfect clip, and when he doesn’t alarms go out as if the sky were falling.

Yes, Djokovic could have lost to Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals, or it could be argued Kei Nishikori outplayed him in slippery conditions that saw the Japanese star match his 34 unforced errors but come away with seven more winners (39-32) and the tiebreaker loss in the third set.

Was Djokovic just tired against a well-rested Murray? (Maybe it unfairly discredits Murray, but this question does seem to come up whenever Djokovic loses to the Scot.)

It’s similar to when tennis observers wondered if Djokovic was vulnerable at the 2015 U.S. Open series when he last lost a title to Murray (at Canada) and then was fatigued against Federer (also a loss) a week later at Cincinnati. This week he didn’t have enough to pull out back-to-back Masters 1000 titles at Madrid and Rome.

If we’ve learned anything about Djokovic, this loss might do him more good as he prepares for his ultimate goal of winning the French Open. Rest, train and focus for quite possibly the most important two weeks of his future career, beginning next week.

Stay tuned. Djokovic will be at the center of the French Open discussion no matter who else we discuss in the upcoming previews.

Winner: Andy Murray

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On his 29th birthday, Andy Murray blew out more than just candles. He ensured rival Novak Djokovic would go home from his party with the second-place trophy after his 6-3, 6-3 victory to win the Italian Open.

It’s an astonishing body of work on clay for the world No. 2. Until April 2015, Murray had never won a clay-court title. Now he has Stuttgart (2015), Madrid (2015), a Davis Cup championship clinched on clay against Belgium (2015) and the Rome title (2016). Like American great Andre Agassi, life on clay seems to be peaking at age 29.

Is the French Open title next? Nobody expected Agassi to win this major after more than decade of frustration on the red clay. Now that Rafael Nadal is no longer a lock at Roland Garros and Novak Djokovic is human (he was treated for cut), the Scot could reasonably slip through the back door for the most coveted trophy in these three greats' ongoing careers.

We will look at Murray’s French Open chances with a feature article in the upcoming days.