Queen Serena steps away, Sharapova returns, Nastaste remains ‘Nasty’ and Nadal is king of clay

But most of the attention in the Fed Cup tie revolved around Great Britain’s trip to Romania and even then, it had little to none around the matches itself. Romania Fed Cup team captain Ilie Nastase remained his usual ‘Nasty’ self and started the weekend off by questioning the colour of Serena’s baby which is due in four months. If that wasn’t enough, he verbally abused a Press Association journalist and then made abhorring remarks at Britain player Jo Konta and captain Anne Keothavong. During the second set between Konta and Sorana Cirstea, excessive noise led to delay and Nastase walked up to chair umpire and said, “What’s your f***ing problem?” and proceeded to call Keothavong and Konta as “f***ing bitches”. He was ordered to leave the court and then the stadium for what ITF described as “serious misconduct”.

My second run-in with Ilie Nastase. He then called me ugly off camera, just for good measure pic.twitter.com/pt2begOpTx

— Eleanor Crooks (@EleanorcrooksPA) 22 April 2017

And that wasn’t the end of it. Cirstea went on to lose and the tie stood at 1-1. She accused Konta of gamesmanship and suggested the British No 1 had exaggerated her reaction (Konta had been reduced to tears). “Why did Konta start crying and saying she felt threatened at 3-1?” Cirstea said. “I’ve been called much worse all over the world … Just because she is crying the match is stopped? That is not fair to me.”

Yeah. That’s just one of the controversies in the last week. He also was heard saying, “Let’s see what colour it has. Chocolate with milk?” about Serena’s baby. Incredibly, Nastase maintains he wasn’t being racist by saying that. “This was a joke,” he said. “If someone didn’t understand it, they lack humour… they have their own humour and we have our humour.” Serena is expecting her first child with fiance Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, who is white. Since then, Serena herself, Simona Halep and Nadia Comaneci have slammed Nastase.

Maria Sharapova takes the court @PorscheTennis for her first practice. pic.twitter.com/01B9I1wfFD

— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) 26 April 2017

But the biggest topic of discussion has been Sharapova’s return from the doping suspension. The topic isn’t new, it just picked pace that her return got closer. She was always expected to return to Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart after being handed a wild card for the main draw. Then Rome and Madrid also offered her main draw wild cards. The field is divided on tournaments bending over to bring in a big name into the tournament despite Sharapova not having any ranking points (she didn’t play enough in 2016 to qualify for a rank). Normally wild cards are reserved for promising players or players returning from injury. But Sharapova has won five Grand Slams, is a big name that would draw crowds – especially now – and thus the organisers are well within their rights to hand her a wild card. But the question is, will the same treatment be meted down to future players. In the past, Viktor Troicki and Marin Cilic have been handed doping bans of 12 months and four months respectively. And they weren’t afforded hand downs – although the comparison in achievements is uneven. After return from suspension, Troicki won two tournaments and Cilic won the US Open in 2014.

Let’s switch to some happier news. Serena announced her 20 week pregnancy on Instagram with a picture of herself in a bathing suit which also highlights that the World No 1 was expecting when she lifted the Australian Open trophy aloft in Melbourne. Talk about proving yourself as the GOAT!! So she not only won her 23rd Grand Slam at 35 years old, she won it when she was pregnant!

Rafa Nadal beat Albert Ramos Vinolas 6-1, 6-3 in the final. (Source: AP)

2017 has been a very bizarre year for tennis. Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray haven’t been able to hit the highs of 2016 and Roger Federer and Nadal have taken over. With Federer sitting out the early part of clay tournaments after dominance on the hard courts, Nadal took over on his favourite surface – clay. He started with a bang to end his run of defeats in the finals. Rafa will now go into Barcelona chasing ‘another decima’.