It was a chaotic Thursday, especially the first half. In the opening four third-round matches of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, we said goodbye to four seeded players, three of which were upsets. Later on more seeds were shown the exit door, but those goodbyes were less surprising.
The biggest blow to the tournament was Thursday's withdrawal of world No.1 and two-time defending champion Serena Williams. The reason is a right elbow injury which the American picked up in Madrid last week. Not even her special love of the tournament, its staff and her glorious record in Rome could make her decide to play through the injury, especially now ahead of the French Open.