In Miami we were lucky to witness a great final which will surely be replicated one day in a Grand Slam finale. Nadal versus Djokovic - the two fittest players on the ATP Tour and both with a great fighting spirit and mental toughness.

If the Serbian's victory over the Spaniard at Indian Wells was surprising to many - even to Rafa - the one in Miami possessed a very different taste as the world number two controlled the points.

This is a true revolution: if we cannot yet talk about a changing of the guard, the Spaniard will have to closely analyse those two defeats and formulate a gameplan to

The Madrid Masters starts this week and will be quickly followed by the
Rome Masters.

We're in the home straight for the French Open and these two
Masters tournaments are going to give us a better idea about who is in the best
shape to win this second Grand Slam of the year.

Let's start with a look at the Rafael Nadal versus Novak Djokovic
battle.

Everybody is waiting for this duel between Djokovic, the most
impressive guy of this start of the season, and Nadal, who is still the boss on
clay having won back-to-back titles in Monte Carlo
and Barcelona.

The Serb was smart to avoid facing Rafa

Sunday April 17 2011 will go down as a sad day after the French Fed Cup Team left the World Group for the first time ever.

It was bound to happen after so many years of having to go to the play-offs - but remains a huge disappointment.
I have had enough of France always putting principles before efficiency. Principles are important in sport and should be respected, but only if - at this level of the game - they lead to results.

If we were guided by a culture of winning, we would not be in this position now. And I have only heard excuses, outlined below, from the staff; in no way will this

After Roger
Federer lost in straight sets in the ATP Dubai final against Novak Djokovic, can
we now consider the Swiss a player in terminal decline?

We looked
forward to watching this match as the Serbian has been on an upward trajectory since
his Davis Cup and Australian Open triumphs. On the other hand, the Swiss's form
is dropping off. Everybody is now speaking of a changing of the guard at the
top of the rankings, and the next battles between the two players will be
scrutinised heavily.

Federer's
excellent mindset achieved last summer has been absent since the start of 2011,
while if

It was great to see Maria Sharapova reach the final in Miami, before losing to
Victoria Azarenka in quite comfortable straight sets.

I went to watch Sharapova play recently
in Indian Wells, when she thrashed Aravane Rezai 6-2 6-2, and was struck by two
things: how electrifyingly she was beating people in the early rounds, but also
the relative weakness of her game.

She's still young but after suffering
from lots of injuries, including undergoing right shoulder surgery, she doesn't
give me the impression that she still makes tennis a top priority.

It may sound weird to talk about the
weakness

Indian Wells gave us some interesting insights into the state of the men's game.

- Roger Federer's decline

Even if the Swiss denies it in front of the press, and refuses to talk about a change of the guard, Indian Wells confirmed this year's trend - Roger's game is declining.

This is absolutely not to deny what a huge champion he is, but to look at the situation with a cool and clear head.

Although he has maintained a high enough level to reach at least the semi-finals of the main tournaments, there are flaws in his game that make him vulnerable against the likes of Nadal, Djokovic and Murray.

Overall, women's tennis is suffering a bad period.

None of the players are finding consistent enough results, or are able to provide an entertaining game; right now the game is a bit of a mess.

Apart from a few matches, this year's US Open lacked interest, both in terms of spectacle and results with a lot of one-sided battles. Unfortunately this tournament has showed again that the level of women's tennis is going down.

In this context, and with Serena Williams out of the picture, it was not surprising to find Kim Clijsters a level above the others.

She's just playing way better tennis.

In Melbourne, just like after the Mahut-Isner match at Wimbledon, everybody is now talking about the fight between Francesca Schiavone and Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Forget for a moment all the records it broke, the match showed everything we love about tennis and about sport in general.

These two Grand Slam champions produced it all: emotion, bravery, beautiful tennis and indeed a life lesson.

However, it did not initially look like we would get anything special.

The first two sets were poor. Both players looked unable to play close to their top level, maybe because of two reasons: the fear they