Updated: May 21, 2013, 3:14 PM ET

Tennis Power Rankings

By Jon Levey
Special to ESPN.com

During the run-up to Roland Garros, the tour pros honed their skills on the clay courts of Madrid and Rome. Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal came away razor-sharp; Novak Djokovic, still looking for his first French Open title, hit a rough patch; and defending champ Maria Sharapova still has no answer for her biggest hurdle. As always, these combined tour power rankings reflect which players have the most mojo, not necessarily the most ranking points, before embarking on Paris.

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2013 Power Rankings: May
RANK	PLAYER	TRENDING	COMMENT
1	Serena Williams	-- Last Month: 1	Williams continues to dominate, adding titles in Madrid and Rome -- the latter without dropping a set -- and currently rides a career-best 24-match winning streak. Other than a few retracted cat scratches from Sloane Stephens, nobody has come close to touching her.
2	Rafael Nadal	1 Last Month: 3	Nadal won Madrid and Rome for his fifth and sixth titles on the year (40th and 41st in career on clay). Even without playing in Australia, Nadal tops the leaderboard in the year-end points race. Outside of beating Djokovic, he's covered pretty much everything on his to-do list.
3	Maria Sharapova	1 Last Month: 4	Sharapova lost to Williams for the 12th consecutive time in the Madrid final, then withdrew in the quarterfinals of Rome, citing a viral illness. Tournament officials were disappointed in her decision but conceded it was the worst case of Serena-itis they had ever encountered.
4	Novak Djokovic	2 Last Month: 2	Questions surround Djokovic after he lost to Dimitrov in his first match in Madrid and then squandered a 6-2, 5-2 lead to Berdych in Rome. Said Djokovic: "I'm fine. I just lost my rhythm." Way to put on a brave face.
5	Roger Federer	2 Last Month: 7	After a seven-week layoff, Federer returned to the court in Madrid and, new togs aside, didn't look all that minty fresh in a loss to Kei Nishikori. He rebounded nicely to reach the Rome finals, where Nadal gave him a heaping spoonful of clay-court medicine. Admit it, with his new corporate haircut, Federer finally looks like somebody's dad.
6	Victoria Azarenka	-- Last Month: 6	Azarenka returned to action for the first time since Indian Wells in Madrid and threw a fit in her second-round loss to Ekaterina Makarova. The following week in Rome proved more successful until she got a UFC-worthy beating from Serena in the finals.
7	Sara Errani	7 Last Month: 14	Back-to-back semifinal runs in Madrid and Rome helped Errani become the second Italian woman ever to crack the top five. In other Errani news, she claims to have seen "My Best Friend's Wedding" about 300 times. Which brings up the question: Does Julia Roberts make movies anymore?
8	Stanislas Wawrinka	13 Last Month: NR	Wawrinka has been getting it done on the dirt this year (19-5). He beat David Ferrer to win the Portugal Open and lost to Nadal in the finals of Madrid, which put him back in the top 10 for the first time since 2008. Who goes further in Paris: Big Stan or Big Brother (Federer)?
9	Tomas Berdych	12 Last Month: NR	Berdych reached the final four of both Madrid and Rome but remains one of two top-10ers (Federer) still searching for his first title on the year. Maybe it's the H&M gear.
10	David Ferrer	-- Last Month: 10	Ferrer was two points from beating Nadal in the Madrid quarterfinals (might as well have been two sets) and took Rafa to three in Rome but came up short each time. Ferrer has lost 13 straight to Nadal on clay. Ha! That makes Ferrer Nadal's clay pigeon.
11	Andy Murray	6 Last Month: 5	Murray retired in his second-round match in Rome with back issues -- on his birthday, no less -- and may pull an Ivan Lendl and sit out the French to focus on Wimbledon. It wouldn't be a popular move, but with an 0-13 career record on clay against the other players currently in the top six, it wouldn't be a foolish one, either.
12	Tommy Haas	3 Last Month: 15	Haas won the title in Munich, lost a three-set war to Ferrer in Madrid and had nothing left for Mikhail Youzhny in the first round of Rome. Give the guy a break -- he's not 34 anymore.
13	Jo-Wilfried Tsonga	5 Last Month: 8	Tsonga took consecutive steps back from his semifinal run in Monte Carlo with a quarters showing in Madrid followed by a third-round exit from Rome. He'll be the host country's sentimental choice, but last month Tsonga turned 28, which would make him the oldest man to win his maiden Slam at Roland Garros since 1990 (Andres Gomez). Bonne chance.
14	Li Na	5 Last Month: 9	Li limps into Paris having lost her opening match in Madrid to lucky-loser qualifier Madison Keys and her second-round match in Rome to Jelena Jankovic. If only Li's husband were still her coach so she could publicly tear him a new one.
15	Ernests Gulbis	6 Last Month: NR	Gulbis took the eventual champ, Haas, to three sets in Munich before qualifying for Rome and giving Nadal, that tournament's champ, his toughest test. He's been saying it all year, but perhaps all roads to the title do indeed go through Gulbis.
16	Agnieszka Radwanska	3 Last Month: 13	Radwanska went blonde and proceeded to lose badly to Laura Robson in Madrid, then to qualifier Simona Halep in Rome. Having more fun yet?
17	Jelena Jankovic	3 Last Month: 20	Jankovic continued her resurgence by beating Li en route to a quarterfinal run in Rome, where she lost to qualifier Halep. This came after Jankovic lost to a qualifier in her opening match in Madrid. She obviously empathizes with the scrappy underdog.
18	Petra Kvitova	2 Last Month: 16	Kvitova got bounced by wild card Daniela Hantuchova in Madrid. Then she lost to Samantha Stosur in three in the round of 16 in Rome. Something about clay seems totally ill-suited for Kvitova's game. Maybe it's the whole patience and movement thing.
19	Grigor Dimitrov	2 Last Month: NR	The Baby Fed moniker is a huge albatross (see Gasquet, Richard), but Dimitrov's win over Djokovic in Madrid after nearly scalping Nadal in Monte Carlo shows he might be the class of generation next. More reps in the gym and less magazine shoots and kissy-face with Sharapova would get him there sooner.
20	Maria Kirilenko	1 Last Month: NR	Kirilenko got to the round of 16 in both Madrid and Rome, losing to Serena in the former and retiring against Errani with a knee injury in the latter. A courtside trainer deemed it sympathy pain for her fiancé's Game 7 performance against the New York Rangers.
Biggest Jump: 13 Biggest Drop: 6