Henin v. Serena Highlight Miami Quarterfinals

Posted on April 1, 2008

The quarterfinals are set at the 2008 Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, headlined today by a super showdown between Grand Slam champions Serena Williams and Justin Henin.

Justine Henin had a breakthrough here last year, advancing past the quarterfinals for the first time in six attempts finishing runner-up); prior to last year she was a two-time quarterfinalist and suffered early round exits three times.

The Williams sisters have won the Sony Ericsson Open title in seven of the last 10 years, Venus Williams winning three times (1998, 1999, 2001) and Serena Williams winning four times (2002, 2003, 2004, 2007); the only three titles that didn’t go their way were 2000 (Martina Hingis), 2005 (Kim Clijsters) and 2006 (Svetlana Kuznetsova).

While there is no chance in Miami for anyone to overtake Henin at No.1, the No.2 ranking could be up for grabs this week; Jelena Jankovic could take Ana Ivanovic’s No.2 ranking with a title here (see Ranking Projections).

Elena Dementieva is currently on an eight-match win streak, going 5-0 to win Dubai and 3-0 so far here; she beat two Top 3 players in Dubai (No.2 Ivanovic and then-No.3 Kuznetsova), a good omen as she faces Jankovic next.

Dinara Safina and Vera Zvonareva are the only players left who have never before won a Tier I singles title, though they have both made finals at this level before, Safina reaching two and Zvonareva one (see Miami/Tier I Records).

Five of the Top 8 seeds have reached their projected quarterfinal berths; three Top 8 seeds fell in the third round Sunday, namely No.2 seed Ana Ivanovic (who fell to Lindsay Davenport), No.5 seed Anna Chakvetadze (who fell to Sabine Lisicki) and No.7 seed Daniela Hantuchova (who fell to Ai Sugiyama); Davenport, Lisicki and Sugiyama all fell in turn in the fourth round on Monday, to Safina, Dementieva and Zvonareva, respectively. (WTA)