TENNIS – Serena Williams will make her debut at the Miami Open WTA Premier Mandatory against Monica Niculescu in the second round in a re-match of their recent Indian Wells head-to-head clash where the US star prevailed with 7-5 7-5, although the Romanian player provided her a very tough test.
Niculescu edged Shelby Rogers in the first round with 7-6 (7-1) 6-1 but she faced a set point serving at 3-5 30-40 in the first set before edging past the US player in the tie-break after a 64-minute opening set.
Williams could play against US teenager Cici Bellis or Zarina Diyas (who lost against Serena with 6-2 6-0 in the third round at Indian Wells). Serena is on collision course against either Angelique Kerber or Svetlana Kuznetsova in the fourth round. There is a question mark on Serena’s fitness after she was forced to withdraw from her Indian Wells semifinal against Simona Halep because of a knee injury. If Serena is fit, she could face potential dangers in her quarter like Garbine Muguruza, Ana Ivanovic or Sabine Lisicki.
At Indian Wells Muguruza lost against Karolina Pliskova. Ivanovic was beaten by Caroline Garcia in the second consecutive tournament. The Serb started the year with a final at Brisbane, but lost in the first round at the Australian Open and in the third round at Dubai and Indian Wells. She has never advanced to the fourth round in Miami.
Lisicki reached the semifinal at Indian Wells after beating defending champion Flavia Pennetta.
Williams hopes to regain her fitness to play on Friday in Miami in what she considers her home tournament as she lives an hour away in Palm Beach. She won at Key Biscayne seven times in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2013 and 2014.
“I am okay. I am managing where I am right now. I am just trying to stay out of pain as much as possible and see what happens. I hit some balls today. I am going to have to manage the pain. You have to figure out the best way around it. I am going to go for it and and see what happens”, said Williams
The second quarter features Simona Halep who won her biggest title so far in her career at Indian Wells beating Jelena Jankovic. The Romanian will open against Nicole Vaidisova who will make her come back to Miami since 2009. Vaidisova made her debut with a 6-1 7-6 win over Hungarian Timea Babos.
Halep could face Italian Camila Giorgi in the third round In the fourth round Halep could renew her battle against Jelena Jankovic in a re-match of the Indian Wells final.
Indian Wells runner-up Jankovic will first have to beat Viktoria Azerenka in the second round and Flavia Pennetta in the third round. Azarenka leads 5-1 in her six head-to-head matches against Jankovic. Azarenka opened her Miami campaign with a 6-3 6-1 win over Silvia Soler Espinosa on Tuesday in her first match in the Florida tournament in three years. Azarenka, who won this tournament in 2009 and 2011, fought back from 1-3 down to win the second set with 6-3. Azarenka was broken at the start of the second set but she broke back before breaking three times in the third, sixth and the eighth games to seal the win in one hour and 23 minutes
The player, who will survive the very tough battles in this section of the draw could face Eugenie Bouchard in the quarter finals.
Another top match-up in the same section of the draw as Bouchard could be the US derby between Sloane Stephens and this year’s Australian Open semifinalist Madison Keys who grew up in Florida.
In the third quarter of the draw Caroline Wozniacki could face Venus Williams in the Round of 16 if the US legend beats Sam Stosur in the third round. Venus, three-time Miami champion in 1998, 1999 and 2001, leads 6-0 in her head-to-head matches against Wozniacki.
Wozniacki had some ups and downs in the first three months of the season. She won in Kuala Lumpur and finished runner-up at Auckland but lost in the second round of the Australian Open against Azarenka and in the third round at Indian Wells where she lost to Swiss teenager Belinda Bencic. The Dane reached the quarter finals three times and the semifinals once in Miami.
Potential favourites for a spot in the quarter final against Venus or Caroline in the top-half of the draw are either Carla Suarez Navarro, who reached the final in Antwerp last February, or Agniewska Radwanska Suarez Navarro and Radwanska could meet in the fourth round
The fourth round of the draw features Maria Sharapova who has never won this title, one of the very few trophies missing from her trophy cabinet. Sharapova will start her Miami campaign against Daria Gavrilova who was leading 5-1 when her New Zealander opponent Marina Erakovic was forced to retire.
Sharapova, who lost to Flavia Pennetta last week at Indian Wells, could face Caroline Garcia in the third round. Garcia provided a very tough test to Sharapova by leading by a set and a break in the second round of the 2011 Roland Garros. Garcia beat Ana Ivanovic last week at Indian Wells. Last month Sharapova had to meet Garcia in the semifinals of Acapulco but Masha was forced to withdraw before the match because of a virus. The winner of this match could face Karolina Pliskova, one of the emerging stars of the WTA circuit this year. Pliskova could face Zhang in the second round and Peng in the third round Sharapova’s potential threat in the quarter finals could be her compatriot Ekaterina Makarova who reached the semifinals at this year’s Australian Open
In the opening matches on Tuesday Cici Bellis beat Indy De Vroome 6-2 6-2. Bellis grabbed the headlines when she upset 2014 Australian Open finalist Dominika Cibulkova in the first round at the US Open. Madison Brengle eased past Aleksandra Krunic 6-0 6-2 setting up a second round match against Caroline Wozniacki. Italian Karin Knapp beat Katerina Siniakova 6-2 6-0. Kaia Kanepi defeated Canadian wild card Francoise Abanda 6-2 6-3. Anna Schmiedlova beat Polona Hercog 6-2 6-3.
On Wednesday Belinda Bencic overcame Daniela Hantukova 6-1 7-6 (7-5), while World Number 113 Tatiana Maria edged Roberta Vinci 7-6 (11-9) 6-3 in a match featuring a lot of breaks.
