Unlucky Loser

Well, it's official - Kim Clijsters is on the comeback trail. And I think I'm excited. It'll be nice to see someone new - well, 'new' - back in the mix. But if she comes back and wins, like, twelve tournaments on the trot, we'll know for sure whether or not the WTA is in a state. And if Kimmie can't have an effect... we'll just have to hope that Roger and Mirka have a baby girl who grows up to dominate like her daddy.

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Now, to actual tennis, not the tennis of the future. It was a good day for the Australians yesterday, with a quality win for Lleyton Hewitt (after a struggle) and good wins for Sam Stosur and Jelena Dokic. Man, I would love to see Dokic do well this tournament - she has admitted herself that she screwed up her scheduling a bit after the craziness of the Aussie Open, but hopefully she's settled herself down. A couple of rounds here would do wonders for her confidence (and also her ranking!)

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There were no huge upsets on either side today, though there are a couple of players that I like the look of that lost. Not quite Stars, but players I like to keep a bit of an eye on because they're sort of interesting. Gilles Muller for Luxembourg is one - I saw him defeat Bernard Tomic in the second round of the Aussie Open at Rod Laver Arena this year, and you cannot tell from television just how booming his serve is. And he's quick, and has some serious shots. I like watching him a lot - but still he lost today, to Sam Querrey. Querrey is definitely the higher ranked player, but I would like to see Muller do well one of these days.

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And in the women's side, I've always liked the look of Marina Erakovic from New Zealand, but she has totally seemed to go off the boil lately over the past few months. She's got some great weapons, but... I don't know what's happening, whether they're misfiring or what, but she's losing where she once won, and it's a bit disappointing. It'd be nice to see her pick herself back up again - our friends across the pond have no other tennis players at all, really! Actually, therein might lie the problem...

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Today's Results

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Sony Ericsson Open (Miami)

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Men's Draw

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Martin Vassallo Arguello def. Potito Starace, 7-6 (11-9) 6-4

Nicolas Massu def. Ryan Sweeting, 6-4 7-6 (7-2)

Teimuraz Gabashvili def. Simone Bolelli, 6-4 4-6 6-4

John Isner def. Sergiy Stakhovsky, 6-4 6-4

Amer Delic def. Steve Darcis, 6-4 7-6 (7-2)

Sam Querrey def. Gilles Muller, 6-4 6-3

Benjamin Becker def. Jesse Levine, 6-4 6-3

Andreas Seppi def. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, 7-6 (8-6) 6-1

Frederico Gil def. Mischa Zverev, 7-6 (9-7) 6-2

Bobby Reynolds def. Juan Ignacio Chela, 0-6 7-5 6-4

Yen-hsun Lu def. Eduardo Schwank, 6-2 6-2

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Women's Draw

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Gisela Dulko def. Lourdes Domínguez Lino, 6-2 6-4

Li Na def. Urszula Radwanska, 6-4 5-7 6-1

María José Martínez Sánchez def. Yanina Wickmayer, 6-0 6-4

Ekaterina Makarova def. Chan Yung-Jan, 3-6 6-2 6-3

Anna-Lena Groenefeld def. Jill Craybas, 6-4 6-1

Tathiana Garbin def. Klara Zakopalova, 6-3 6-4

Barbora Zahlavova Strycova def. Karin Knapp, 7-6 (7-2) 6-3

Alla Kudryavtseva def. Mariana Duque Marino, 6-4 7-6 (8-6)

Karolina Sprem def. Marina Erakovic, 6-0 6-2

Alexa Glatch def. Timea Bacsinszky, 6-4 6-1