Events / Guy McCrea / 22 March 2010 /

It's the "fifth Major" this week as the WTA tour moves to the humidity of Florida. With several of the usual favourites ruled out through injury, Guy McCrea tells us who can pick up huge ranking points and prize money by becoming 2010's Queen of Florida...

Barely has the dust settled in the Californian desert at Indian Wells, than the WTA Tour's finest have crossed the States for an arguably even bigger event - the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida. Like Indian Wells, Miami is up there as the most prestigious and lucrative event in the calendar after the majors. It has always been a top tier tournament and offers players huge ranking points if they are successful, plus plenty of prize money - $4.5 million dollars is the total pot this year, with the small sum of $700,000 awarded to the singles champion.

The mandatory status of Miami means that it always provides a stacked draw and guarantees plenty of mouth-watering match-ups from the outset. Like Indian Wells, the field is 96 deep - big but slightly smaller than the Slams (128) so the top seeds are threatened more often during the event. There are far fewer early round gimmes on offer.

In addition to its size, the event's stature also adds to its prestige. The plush thirty acre surroundings of Crandon Park have played host to the event since 1987, with the tournament itself established two years earlier. Most of the marquee names in women's tennis have at least one Miami title on their resumes. Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Chris Evert and Monica Seles are among those to have carved their names on the trophy. Since the turn of the century though, the tournament has been dominated by the Williams sisters to such an extent that it perhaps wouldn't be unreasonable to rename it the Williams Open.

Serena (currently priced on Betfair at around [3.25] to defend her Wimbledon title) has won five times to jointly hold the overall record for most wins with Steffi Graf, while Venus also has three Miami titles in her career. Collectively, the Williams sisters have won eight of the last twelve editions of this prestigious event. But this time, Serena's injured left knee hasn't healed enough for her to be able to play her 'home' tournament. So in the five-time champion's absence, who will snare the spoils?

Obviously, there is Venus ([4.7] to win Wimbledon). The older Williams sister has enjoyed a good break after a hectic and successful February on tour. She is on a ten match win streak after defending her titles in Dubai and Acapulco. Interestingly, Venus hasn't been beyond the semi-finals since the last of her three titles back in 2001. At this stage in her career, Venus has little left to prove. But adding a fourth career Miami crown and putting the trophy back in the possession of the Williams family would still be a considerable achievement.

Victoria Azarenka ([13.5] to win Wimbledon) is the defending Miami champion after she outplayed Serena to win last year's final. Many thought it would prove the platform for the young Belarussian to go on and win a Grand Slam title. That hasn't happened yet - but on her favoured hard courts, don't bet against Azarenka defending the title here - as long as she can avoid Venus, who easily beat her in Dubai last month.

Caroline Wozniacki ([20.0] to win Wimbledon) is the freshly installed world number two after her run to the final of Indian Wells. The young Dane is at the forefront of the new generation of talent which is undoubtedly critical to the future success of the women's game. Before her run in the desert, Wozniacki hadn't impressed a great deal in early 2010 though. Factor in also that many players who deliver in the dusty Californian desert then struggle to adapt to the different, more humid conditions of the Florida Keys, and it is more difficult to see Wozniacki winning.

Kim Clijsters ([7.2] to win at SW19) and Svetlana Kuznetsova ([26.0]) are both former Miami champions from 2005 and 2006. It is still unclear how much the Belgian's crushing third round defeat to Nadia Petrova at the Australian Open has affected her confidence, while to predict which Kuznetsova will show up is a tough task - note her limp early exit from Indian Wells despite being the top seed there. But both Clijsters and Kuznetsova have the experience to prosper and the medium-fast hard courts at Crandon Park are well-suited to their accurate, powerful baseline games.

All in all, with the absence of Serena this year's event is wide open, and it would be foolish to rule out a new winner's name on the coveted trophy. Indeed, perhaps one of the WTA Tour's emergent stars such as Alisa Kleybanova ([190.0] to win Wimbledon) will choose these twelve days to sweetly signal their arrival in the upper echelons of the women's game.

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