Regrouping on Miami beaches

The world’s finest tennis players packed their bags in Indian Wells and relocated to Miami, where the combined $9m Sony Ericsson event starts on Wednesday. The Serbian tennis will be represented in Miami by Novak Djokovic, Jelena Jankovic, Viktor Troicki, Janko Tipsarevic and Nenad Zimonjic (doubles), as well as Ana Ivanovic, who played her Indian Wells final on Sunday evening.

 Ivanovic and Djokovic, in the men’s draw at Indian Wells last week, failed to defend their respective 2008 titles, and will try to improve on their performances at the Key Biscayne event.

- “I felt really bad after the Zvonareva match. Now it’s all in the past, but I’m really disappointed as I’d wanted this title badly and thought I stood good chances of getting it. I have a few days of rest before the Miami tournament. I need to get into the rhythm of matches and I just hope it isn’t as windy in Miami as it was in Indian Wells,” said Ana Ivanovic.

The Serbian players are yet to find out the names of their opponents at Miami, as the draw procedure was held on late Monday night. All of the Serbian players – except for Tipsarevic and Troicki, who are not in the top 32 – will be seeds and have a bye in the first round, which means they will play their opening matches on Friday or Sunday. The tournament officials have also informed the media that they have granted Rafael Nadal’s plea to play his first match at the Sony Ericsson Open on Saturday. The Spaniard will aim to improve on his last season’s runner-up place after losing to Nikolay Davydenko 6-4 6-2 in the 2008 final in Miami.

Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic will facing a similar test, as she had a push last year until the final, where she lost to Serena Williams 6-1 5-7 6-3. Jelena is struggling with her form ever since the season’s start. Last week she fired her fitness coach Pat Etcheberry and it remains to be seen whether a week has been enough for Jankovic to prepare for the remainder of the season. Moreover, Jankovic’s third WTA rankings position is in jeopardy too, as she now assumes the post with 7,985 points, with Elena Dementieva breathing down her neck with 7,671 points. If the former No. 1 from Serbia fails to defend the 700 points she won last season, and Dementieva outdoes her own Miami campaign from last year when she was stopped in the quarter-final, the two will switch places in the WTA rankings as of next week.
Janko Tipsarevic is facing something of a mammoth task himself, as he too reached the quarter-finals at Miami last year, and, just like his compatriot Jankovic, has been on a poor patch of form of late. This is why the greatest hopes are invested in Novak Djokovic and Ana Ivanovic, who can only win points as they both came to early exits in 2008. The points won at this season’s Key Biscayne event will particularly be significant for Djokovic, who is holding on to the ATP position No. 3, but the gap between him and the number-four Andy Murray is shrinking by the week.