 March
Madness
March is always a jam-packed month for tennis in the U.S. The action begins in
the California desert at Indian Wells when the players gather en masse again for
the first time since the Australian Open. It ends with another
12-day feast of tennis on the coast of Florida near Miami.
There were plenty of surprises at Indian Wells, with defending champions Roger
Federer and Maria Sharapova both going down early and several other top seeds
also quickly falling by the wayside.
In the end, Rafael Nadal bounced back with a vengeance to claim the crown,
moving superbly and hitting the ball with confidence to win his first title in
six months. Read about his
semifinal and
final wins in TENNIS.com's
Pacific Life Open section.
It had been even longer time between tournament wins for Daniela Hantuchova, who
triumphed at Indian Wells in 2002 as a relative unknown when she shocked Martina
Hingis in the final. Five years later, she rediscovered the old Indian Wells
magic and walked off with her second career title. See how Hantuchova celebrated
her win in TENNIS.com's
Backcourt.
Also providing on-site reports from Indian Wells were TENNIS.com bloggers Peter
Bodo for
TennisWorld and Steve Tignor for
The
Wrap... ... check out their distinctive accounts and hear from all the guest
bloggers too.
March has been an eventful month off the court as well, with the ATP announcing
it had scrapped its round-robin experiment and the WTA revealing its plans for
the 2009 calendar - get behind-the-scenes accounts of both events at
TENNIS.com's
Travelblogue by Kamakshi Tandon.
 Miami
Nice
The upsets haven't let up in Miami, with Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova again
going down to defeat in the early rounds, soon joined by Indian Wells men's
champ Rafael Nadal. Federer's exit was the story of the week, coming
as it did at the hands of the same player who took him out in Indian
Wells-Guillermo Canas.
Read about Canas'
remarkable comeback and get accounts of both his
first and
second wins over Federer - the first time a player other than Nadal has
defeated Federer in back-to-back events since 2003.
Nadal, meanwhile, did the opposite- he went down to the player he defeated in the
Indian Wells' final, Novak Djokovic.
Sharapova's loss was less of a surprise as she was facing Serena Williams, the
same player who deprived her of the Australian Open crown. But lately, she's
also been dealing with another obstacle- her own shaky serve. Check out Sharapova's
serving woes at Indian Wells and Williams'
dominating performance in Miami.
And there's lots more action to come. Williams continues her run in Miami this
week, as does Justine Henin- the two could meet in the final. Federer's loss has
opened up the men's draw, with his conqueror Canas and up-and-comers Andy Murray
and Djokovic in the running for a surprise victory at the second Masters Series
of the year. Djokovic and Murray, born exactly a week apart and good friends off
the court, will be meeting in their second straight Masters Series semifinal.
Peter Bodo talks to both
Novak Djokovic and
Andy Murray to find out more about them.
Stay up to date with all the news and results at
TENNIS.com,
and check out our special
Sony Ericsson Open section for features and previews of the action.
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