Miami: Women's Quarterfinals

The quarterfinals are set on the women's side in the Miami suburb of Key Biscayne.  After a chaotic first couple days we may have thought anarchy was about to set in, but in the end, level heads and higher rankings prevailed, with six of the top 8 seeds still alive and those that aren't are named Williams.  While it was expected that Serena Williams would have a good tournament, it is suprising that Venus is still standing after 3 3-set wins over Kvitova, Wozniak, and Ivanovic.

The young Americans have not featured nearly as prominent as at Indian Wells, going a combined 5-5 after not getting many wildcards at this tournament.  Sloane Stephens qualified and then won 2 matches and Keys qualified and beat Rybarikova.  McHale and King also got one main draw win each.  Also of note, 18-year-old Spanish wildcard Garbine Muguruza Blanco beat Morita, Zvonareva, and Pennetta to reach the round of 16.

But back to players still remaining, here they are:
1) Victoria Azarenka (BLR)
2) Maria Sharapova (RUS)
4) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN)
5) Agnieszka Radwanska (POL)
7) Marion Bartoli (FRA)
8) Na Li (CHN)
10) Serena Williams (USA)
Venus Williams (USA)

Matchups today and tomorrow are Azarenka/Bartoli, Radwanska/Venus, Wozniacki/Serena, and Sharapova/Li

Azarenka came back from the throes of death again, this time trailing Cibulkova 6-1 4-0 and saved match points in the second set tiebreaks prevail 1-6 7-6(7) 7-5.  (This is still a nice result from the Slovak who had struggled prior to this in 2012.)  Wozniacki managed to avoid Goerges and Clijsters and instead met Wickmayer, who she beat in straight sets.  (Wickmayer upset her compatriot Clijsters 6-4 7-6(5).)  Sharapova, Wozniacki, Radwanska, and S.Williams are all yet to lose a set.

Azarenka (Champ), Sharapova (F), and Radwanska (QF) are repeat quarterfinalists from last year.  Clijsters will fall down further in the rankings after she failed to get to the quarters.  And in a surprising turn consistency for the WTA, 5 of 8 quarterfinalists at Indian Wells are still alive:  Azarenka, Sharapova, Radwanska, Bartoli, and Li.  Also Ivanovic and Kirilenko were within one match of reaching back-to-back QF.

Seeds losing their initial match were 3) Kvitova, 9) Zvonareva, 11) Schiavone, 13) Jankovic, 14) Goerges, 18) Kerber, 19) Pavlyuchenkova, 25) Medina Garrigues, 26) Kuznetsova, 27) Safarova, 28) Niculescu, 30) Errani, 31) Kanepi, and 32) Petrova.  That makes 14 early losses compared to 8 at IW.  You have to wonder if Zvonareva's and Schiavone's time in the limelight is over.

Finally, Kleybanova returned to tour with a win over Larsson before losing to Kirilenko.