March Madness: #12 Fab Fognini shows off his colors

It's madness, I tell you! Fuzzy yellow ball style. Follow along this week for our Top 17 takeaways and outtakes from the 2017 Sunshine Double in California and Florida.

Check out No. 13 here.

The sometimes fabulous, often flabbergasting Fabio Fognini has often been referred to as, shall we say, "mercurial."

Don't take my word for it, though. Patrick Mouratoglou's own tennis academy branded him as such before Fognini defeated that school's own charge, Jeremy Chardy. (And the Mouratoglou Academy is hardly alone, as evidenced by this niche Twitter search.)

The frequently foggy-headed Fognini also beat a resurgent Donald Young and, most important, No. 2 seed Kei Nishikori en route to the Miami Open semifinals. Topping Nishikori put Fognini in his first-ever Miami Open quarterfinal after seven attempts. Playing the No. 5–seeded Rafael Nadal in the semis proved another task entirely, though, as Rafa pasted him to the court by a 6-1, 7-5 count. (It short of "avenged" Rafa's 2015 US Open loss to Fognini, but, well, it helped.)

Turns out Fognini was actually mighty fine by that loss—so Fabio of him—as he tweeted, upon Roger Federer's victory over Nadal in an underwhelming final, that it was "just as well that [he] lost in the semi ..."

Along the way on Key Biscayne, that uber-mercurial Fognini gave us moments such as this "chicken dance" routine ...

... and a slip-and-slide performance that proved he's got real gusto.

He also got into a tiff post-match with an earlier-round foe, No. 30 seed Joao Sousa. The two exchanged words after shaking each other's hands, as well as that of chair umpire Cedric Mourier, who had to restrain them.

In the end, it's all histrionics. Histrionics and fearsome forehands. God bless Fabio.