by Pete Bodo

Mornin’ everyone. We’re returning to Crisis Center mode for the Rome Masters, so feel free to weigh in on the on-going matches or events of the day in the Comments, below.

I much prefer the Italian name for the tournament, Internazionale BNL D’Italia, although – no offense to the sponsor – I could do without the insertion of the sponsor’s acronym.  The word “internazionale” lends an aura of gravitas to any event; how come it sounds so much more forceful and authoritative than the English equivalent, “international?” I put it down to the muscularity of the letter “Z,” which I’d describe as a “power” letter in a way that goes beyond its value in a game of Scrabble. In any event, I’m glad the sponsors didn’t cave to the marketing esperanto and call the event BNL Roma Masters, or something similar.

The prospect of a Roger Federer vs. Rafael Nadal semifinal seems to dominate the discussion of the Internazionale D’Italia, and for good reason. Federer’s unexpected losses in the big hard court events this spring pulled the rug out from under that familiar story line. Who would have guessed, two years ago, that Federer vs. Nadal would seem so. .  . fresh. I’m sure the Kool-Aid drinkers in both camps are rehearsing their bon mots and bon justes, although there’s one thing that seems to me to stand in the way of Federer and Nadal squaring off in a few days time. And that’s the surprising inconsistency Federer showed toward the end of last year and so far in this new one.

It’s funny, but as I said in our new podcast, looking forward to the Euro-clay circuit a few weeks ago, I tended to be dismissive of Federer’s losses in the U.S. hard court Masters events. Now, looking  back on those two events, I don’t read any more into them  – but I feel they might prove more meaningful than many of us wanted to think. You know, it’s like developing a small blister at the start of a long race. It’s no big deal when it happens, but the longer the race goes on, the more likely it is to become an irritant. And in the long run, it might even prove a critical handicap.

Of course, this is Federer we’re talking about, and we ought to note that somehow whatever was on his mind at Indian Wells or Miami was conspicuously absent from his mindset in Melbourne. He looked fresh as a daisy and utterly on the scent at the Australian Open. Unfortunately, the Internazionale is neither the Australian Open,nor any other major.

That’s why, thinking about The Rivalry, Cont., the main job I see for Roger is actually getting to Nadal – slicing and blasting his way through a succession of players to reach his arch-rival. As I write this, Federer and Gulbis have split lop-sided sets which, in some ways, is beginning to look like a sign of the times for Federer. And Nicolas Almagaro, another fella who could give Federer trouble in a later round, has come back from losing a first set tiebreaker to Lukasz Kubot and appears to be in charge of things.

It was easy to forget, during the hard-court season, the importance of grinding, the talent for playing relentlessly focused, consistent, patient tennis day-after-day, round-after-round. Nadal has an extraordinary facility for grinding – you’d think that after winning Monte Carlo 16 times, a guy would go into the 17th meeting in a somewhat distractable state. But Nadal showed us in Monaco (alright, he’s only won it six times in a row) that he’s not only good at grinding, it may be what he most loves to do. As much as he likes that tournament, I’ve got to think that his record there is less about that specific event than about what it represents. There is about Nadal something of the glutton for punishment, which is a useful vice on clay.

I can’t honestly say I feel Nadal similarly threatened when it comes to his ability to be on time and present for an appointment with Herr Federer. Oh, he might be beaten; only a fool takes anything for granted on the ATP Tour these days. But somehow, I believe Nadal has hit his stride and settled in; with the finish line at Roland Garros so far off, it’s hard to imagine anything throwing him off. 

If I were a hardcore Federer backer, I’d be more concerned with him getting to the semis than how he’ll do once he makes the bracket. Which, of course, is the same thing I might have said to Nadal fans in years past at any major other than the French Open.

STUTTGART, Germany (AP)—Defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova cruised past Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia 6-1, 6-2 in the opening round of the Porsche Grand Prix.

The third-seeded Russian dominated Tuesday’s match on indoor clay. Srebotnik is coming back after missing eight months of last season with various injuries and has been eliminated in the first round of all five of her tournaments this year.

Kuznetsova won the French Open last year for her second Grand Slam title and is using the Stuttgart event to warm up for the defense of that crown.

ROME (AP)—Novak Djokovic began his bid to reach a third consecutive Rome Masters final with a quick 6-1, 6-1 win over 46th-ranked Jeremy Chardy on Tuesday.

Djokovic never faced a break point and served well from start to finish—a sharp contrast from his semifinal loss to Fernando Verdasco at the Monte Carlo Masters two weeks ago.

The second-ranked Serb also managed to maintain his focus when rain picked up at the end of the second set, closing the match out in 59 minutes.

Djokovic won this clay-court warmup for the French Open in 2008 and lost last year’s final to Rafael Nadal.

Earlier, Lleyton Hewitt grinded out a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win over ninth-seeded Mikhail Youzhny, a positive step in the Australian’s comeback from hip surgery.

Youzhny committed a whopping 59 unforced errors to Hewitt’s 34 and dropped to 1-4 in his career against the former top-ranked player, who underwent surgery on Jan. 29.

In other matches, Stanislas Wawrinka easily beat Juergen Melzer 6-1, 6-2; Feliciano Lopez advanced past Benjamin Becker 6-4, 6-3; and Italian wild card Simone Bolelli eliminated German lucky loser Simon Greul 6-4, 6-1.

Later, top-ranked Roger Federer plays his first singles match of the clay season against No. 40 Ernests Gulbis and No. 4 Andy Murray was up against Andreas Seppi.

>>> Click here to watch Rome matches live on TennisTV.com.