World No.1 Serena Williams won a tight two-setter against Li Na to reach the semifinals of the Sony Open Tennis in Miami, which is her 59th victory at the tournament, tying her with Steffi Graf for most match wins at the so called fifth Grand Slam.

Serena faced three break points in the first game of the match, but saved them all, and in the sixth game converted one of her three opportunities to break in the first set, thanks to Li’s double fault, which was enough for her to take the set 6-3 that finished with Serena having one winner more than Li and three unforced errors less.

In the second set Serena first led 2-0, before Li went on a roll, won five straight games for 5-2 and even had a set point on her opponent’s serve. But Williams produced yet another comeback at this tournament and eventually won 6-3 7-6(5) in tough windy conditions and despite an upper leg injury scare.

In the semifinals Serena will play the winner of the match between seed No.4 Agnieszka Radwanska and seed No.30 Kirsten Flipkens. She's 4-0 against Radwanska, while she's never played Flipkens. (source: Tennis Now, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Maria Sharapova rounded out the quarterfinals of the Sony Open Tennis in Miami by beating Klara Zakopalova 6-2 6-2 after failing to convert four match points in the final game that had five deuces. This is Sharapova’s eighth appearance at the tournament and she played the finals four times but never made it to the winner’s trophy. Her quarterfinal will be a rematch of her recent Indian Wells quarterfinal – she faces Sara Errani, who lost the first set of her fourth-rounder against Ana Ivanovic in quick 23 minutes, before working her way to a 1-6 6-4 6-2 victory. Sharapova is 3-0 against Errani, including her 7-6(6) 6-2 win at this month’s Indian Wells.

Quarterfinal pairs: Serena Williams (1) vs. Li Na (5), Agnieszka Radwanska (4) vs. Kirsten Flipkens (30), Sara Errani (8) vs. Maria Sharapova (3), Jelena Jankovic (22) vs. Roberta Vinci (15). (source: WTA Tour, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Just two winners in the first set, contrasted with 18 unforced errors, ensured that Serena Williams found herself trailing Dominika Cibulkova 2-6 and her inability to pull herself together made her lose four more games to winning just one in the second set. But from 2-6 1-4, Serena's internal dialogue got her mental control back, which naturally translated into great play, and she won 11 of the last 13 games of the fourth-round match at the Sony Tennis Open in Miami. Final score: 2-6 6-4 6-2.

Serena is famous for many things, but her ability to swing into higher gear definitely tops the list. Serena is the only player to have won three Grand Slam titles while saving match points on the way. Moreover, she is 21-20 since 2009 when losing the first set.

I’ve been down worse. It’s nothing new. Just keep fighting. I never give up. Doesn’t matter whether it’s in life or on the tennis court, I keep fighting.

As for Cibulkova, in the same round of the same tournament last year she also faced a world No.1 player, then it was Victoria Azarenka, and Cibulkova also had a good initial lead, 6-1 5-2, before falling to the Belarusian 1-6 7-6(7) 7-5 in the absolute thriller. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Victoria Azarenka's scream will be absent from the courts of this years Sony Open Tennis in Miami, as she's withdrawn ahead of her opening match due to a lingering ankle injury that made her withdraw before her Indian Wells quarterfinal against Caroline Wozniacki this month, but her boyfriend Redfoo made sure that the scream is there even when Vika is not playing. His new song entitled "Heart of a Champion" includes the famous grunts at the 1:25 mark and later at the 3:20 mark. You can listen to it here.

It takes the heart of a champion, the fist of a fighter, going the distance to be the survivor.

Azarenka is 17-0 this year with two titles, but has withdrawn from three events. Her replacement in the Miami draw Lauren Davis got from being a lucky loser to becoming a lucky winner, beating Madison Keys 6-1 5-7 7-6(7) in the second round, after trailing 3-6 in the tiebreak and saving three straight match points thanks to Keys' unforced errors.

More in Azarenka news, she took some glamor pics for her new sponsor Red Bull in a New York hotel room, during her stay in the city for the BNP Paribas Showdown earlier this month.

While in Miami, Vika attended the famous Player Party in a daring funky outfit which would've been your average mini skirt and top for ladies' night out, but Vika accompanied it with a see-through gown. Strange, but works on Vika! Also, the Belarusian world No.3 visited children’s hospital in South Florida, signing autographs and posing for photos with children.

Today at the Sony Open Tennis in Miami Li Na played her first match since injuring her left ankle in the Australian Open final a month and a half ago and the comeback was successful, a 6-3 6-1 victory over world No.42 Kiki Bertens. The fifth-seeded Li won the second-round match without dropping serve, ending it with ten straight points won. The Chinese is happy with how her game worked today and said she entered the encounter excited rather than nervous.

World No.1 Serena Williams was another highlight of the day, beating Flavia Pennetta 6-1 6-1. The match was less straightforward than the score suggests. Serena faced seven break points, but amazingly defended them all, and earned as much as 18 break points on Pennetta's serve, but the Italian's percentage of saving them was not as good as her opponent's and she was broken six times to lose the match in one hour and 17 minutes. Serena was playing her first match since becoming WTA No.1 again.

Fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska had a quick passage into the third round, beating Hsieh Su-Wei 6-3 6-2, while seed No.7 Petra Kvitova and seed No.9 Caroline Wozniacki both battled from a set down: Kvitova to beat Peng Shuai 5-7 6-2 6-2, Wozniacki against Karolina Pliskova 5-7 6-3 6-3. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

In September 2012 we learned the Justine Henin and her partner Benoit Bertuzzo were to become parents in spring and today that moment has arrived: this afternoon, on March 20th, the retired seven-time Grand Slam champion gave birth to a healthy little girl named Lalie. It is her first child.

Just hours ago, Justine announced on her official Facebook page:

Nous l'attendions tellement, ça y est, cet après-midi une petite fée est venue illuminer notre vie… Elle s'appelle Lalie, est en pleine forme et nous sommes fous de joie! Justine et Benoit.

We've been expecting it so much, it's here now, this afternoon a little fairy has arrived to brighten our lives… Her name is Lalie, she's healthy and we are thrilled! Justine and Benoit

The 30-year-old Justine met Benoit in early 2011 via a mutual friend. Previously, she was married to Pierre-Yves Hardenne, from 2002 to 2007, but they didn't have children. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Our contributor Omair is continuing his series of comparing the top of the WTA with their corresponding ATP colleagues. So far we've had:

• Introductory article
• Discussion about who would win if Serena faced Djokovic, Azarenka played Federer and Sharapova encountered Murray
• Analysis of who was more consistent over the last 12 months, Maria Sharapova or Andy Murray

People may be saying: "Are you serious, how can you ever compare Roger Federer with Victoria Azarenka? Their careers are completely different: Federer has won 17 Grand Slams, Azarenka just two, etc." You must be thinking that I am going crazy, but seriously, I am not out of my mind. We are talking about the results over the period of last 12 months, not their entire careers. They are both ranked No.2 at the moment, and there is no better way to measure the consistency of both tours than by comparing the results of the top players.

There were a lot interesting things that I noticed while doing these analyses: in my previous article it was that Sharapova won four more matches than Murray despite playing five fewer tournaments, now it's that Federer reached the quarterfinals or better of all the 17 tournaments he played with the exception of one, Federer beat three Top 10 players in two tournaments, Azarenka won 58% of her matches against the Top 4 players, and Azarenka either retired or withdrew from her matches four times during the course of last 12 months.

Azarenka and Federer had few things in common over the course of last 12 months. They remained No.1 for a certain period of time, although for Azarenka the time span was way longer than for Federer. She stayed at the top spot for pretty much the entire 12 months with the exceptions of few weeks, when Sharapova reached the top spot. Each player won one Grand Slam.

Let us see how the two did in the categories we defined in our previous article. The categories highlighted in yellow go in favor of Azarenka, while the ones highlighted in blue go in favor of Federer.

Read more »

First of all, I'm sorry for not having covered the semifinals, but I have a good excuse, I was a maid of honor at a friend's wedding yesterday . Recovering from yesterday's wild celebrations, I was able to relax with the final action in Indian Wells, featuring Maria Sharapova and Caroline Wozniacki. The Dane's last Premier Mandatory final was at the same tournament two years ago and then she went all the way to the title, even beating Sharapova in the semis, but things have since changed considerably and the Russian is way stronger now, overpowering Wozniacki 6-2 6-2 in the title match.

Sharapova recorded 33 winners to Wozniacki's two and that hard-hitting and accuracy brought her a break to love at the very beginning of the match and a straightforward victory, without dropping her own serve, in one hour and 21 minutes. Naturally, Sharapova's count of unforced errors was greater than Wozniacki's, 25 to 19, but her dominance in winner's was insurmountable.

After a first-round bye, Sharapova beat Francesca Schiavone, Carla Suarez Navarro, Lara Arruabarrena, Sara Errani, Maria Kirilenko and finally Wozniacki, all in straight sets, and lifted her 28th career champion's trophy and first this season. She will ascend to No.2 in the rankings, pushing Victoria Azarenka to the third position. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)