Justine and Serena On Course for Quarterfinal Clash in Miami
Posted by Aaress Lawless on Mar 24, 2008 | Print | Email | Bookmark
Image courtesy of the 2007 Sony Ericsson Open
Beautiful Key Biscayne will play host this week to the Sony Ericsson Open, the largest non-Grand Slam tennis tournament in the United States.
World No. 1 Justine Henin, Pacific Life Open champion Ana Ivanovic, and Americans Venus and Serena Williams are among the talented stars expected to compete in Florida.
For Venus and Serena, this is their hometown event, which they have won seven times combined.
Henin reached the final in Miami last season before losing to Serena Williams, who rallied after dropping the opening set 6-0.
This year, Justine and Serena are in the same section of the draw and could face each other for the fourth time in less than ten months in the quarterfinal round. Henin defeated Williams in the quarterfinals at the 2007 French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open.
World No. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova and defending Wimbledon champion Venus Williams are also positioned in the top half of the draw. Venus could potentially face her sister in the semifinals.
The bottom half of the draw is led by world No. 2 Ana Ivanovic. Apart from the absent Maria Sharapova, Ivanovic has enjoyed the most successful start to the 2008 tennis season. She reached the final at the Australian Open and most recently won last week’s Pacific Life Open in straight sets over Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Ivanovic’s draw could set her up for a third round meeting with American Lindsay Davenport. Davenport is one of the Tour’s best hard court players, but had to retire from Indian Wells last week because of a back injury.
Maria Sharapova, the 2008 Australian Open champion, is noticeably absent from the tournament. Sharapova withdrew on Saturday because of a shoulder injury.
The top eight seeds are Justine Henin, Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Anna Chakvetadze, Venus Williams, Daniela Hantuchova, and Serena Williams.
As a mandatory Tier I tournament, the Sony Ericsson Open features a main draw of ninety-six singles players and thirty-two doubles teams. All thirty-two seeded players received first-round byes.
The singles champion will receive a winner’s purse of $590,000 dollars and the runner-up will be awarded $295,000 dollars in prize money.
Nick | Mar 25, 2008 | Reply
If you have Tennis Channel, you will be able to see matches on TC…apparently, they are airing matches after FSN.
TennisPlaza | Mar 25, 2008 | Reply
Anyone know if the Sony Ericsson Open is doing the glow in the dark night tennis. Last year was incredible.
Will.I.AM | Mar 25, 2008 | Reply
Does anyone know where we can find a full tv schedule for the tournament?
Aaress | Mar 25, 2008 | Reply
Hi Will.I.AM,
I’m working on a complete schedule for both TTC and FSN for the next two weeks. It should be posted later today!
Thanks!
Curt | Mar 27, 2008 | Reply
Explain to me how Miami is the most important tournament after the majors, since Indian Wells is also Tier 1 and has the largest arena outside Arthur Ashe and the greatest attendance.
Aaress | Mar 27, 2008 | Reply
Hi Curt,
Like you said, the Pacific Life Open and the Sony Ericsson Open are both Tier I’s. However, Miami offers over $1.5 million dollars more in prize money and bestows more ranking points than Indian Wells.
Also, the Sony Ericsson Open is a mandatory tournament for the WTA , which gives it a far better field than the Pacific Life Open.
Hope this helped answer your question! Thanks for reading On the Baseline!