TENNIS in DEPTH.

Kim Clijsters played as though she was double-parked and about to receive a traffis ticket as she reached the Sony Ericsson Open fourth round in double-quick time.

Belgium’s former world number one eased past 17th seed Shahar Peer in just 50 minutes, beating the Israeli 6-0 6-1.

The reigning US Open champion is in ominous form, having beaten Petra Kvitova 6-1 6-1 in the second round.

Australian ninth seed Samantha Stosur fought back after dropping the first set to beat Virginie Razzano of France 4-6 7-5 6-1.

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Ana Ivanovic  showed signs of improvement despite losing a gripping third round match against sixth seed Agnieszka Radwanska at the Sony Ericsson Open. The 22-year-old played some of her best tennis of recent months, and showed magnificent sportsmanship in conceding a point to her opponent, but could not avoid a 7-5, 7-5 defeat.

“At times I felt really good out there,” said Ana. “I have a lot to be pleased with about this performance. I was aggressive, although still not as much as I would like, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction. She’s obviously a very, very good player.

 ”I am able to identify the areas that I need to work on in the coming weeks. Of course, I am never happy to lose, but parts of my performance today were encouraging.”

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James Blake and Andy Roddick blasted Wayne Odesnik for admitting to importing human growth hormones in January before a tuneup tournament to the first major of the year.

Odesnik, 24, who lives in Fort Lauderdale and is ranked 98th, was fined $8,320 in an Australian court Friday and faces a possible two-year ban from tennis. The ITF handles all doping decisions and is investigating the case.

“That’s just plain cheating and they should throw him out of tennis,” Roddick said after his second-round victory over Russian Igor Andreev that ended after midnight Friday.

“I was shocked. We don’t need stories like that. That’s the minority. If that’s the case I have zero sympathy.

Blake, who played World Team Cup with Odesnik, was also unforgiving.

“It’s the same thing you hear about the criminal next door — he seemed like a nice guy until they found something going on,” Blake said. “People look for a way to get ahead, and that’s unfortunate. It’s something that’s frustrating. You want to feel like you’re playing on a fair playing field. I’m glad they caught him.”

Roddick, who has practiced with Odesnik near his home in Austin, became more agitated as the questions continued.

“To have it be one of our guys and for us to lose a guy in the Top 100, it makes me a little angry,” Roddick said. “I don’t want that stigma attached to our country and to our players, so it really [angers] me.

“I take a lot of pride in what we have to do on a daily basis and how responsible we have to be for one …. jackass to ruin it for the rest of us.”

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Andy Murray crashed out at the first stage of the defence of his Sony Ericsson Open title in Miami when he was beaten in straight sets by the world number 101 Mardy Fish.

Murray, who had received a first-round bye, produced a performance plagued with errors to fall 6-4 6-4 to an American opponent whom he had beaten comfortably in each of their previous three meetings.

And following swiftly on the back of a disappointing quarter-final loss to Robin Soderling in Indian Wells last week, it is a result that is sure to make Murray re-evaluate his 2010 campaign.

All seemed well for Murray when he broke to go 3-1 up in the first set but the inconsistency which has plagued his recent game was highlighted in the next game when he blew a 40-0 advantage to be broken straight back.

Then a series of uncharacteristic forehand errors presented Fish with another break for a 5-4 lead in the first set and the American claimed his advantage when Murray flopped a backhand into the net.

Things did not improve for Murray at the start of the second set, when he was immediately broken again by a huge backhand return from Fish, who claimed his fourth game in a row.

Fish wriggled out of two break points against his serve in the eighth game to maintain his advantage and although Murray served out himself it still gave Fish the chance to serve for the match.

With the home crowd roaring him on, Fish saved a break point before taking advantage of his second match point opportunity, flashing a cross-court volley to draw the curtain on a distinctly unimpressive Murray display.

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 Ivan Ljubicic – winner of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells on Sunday – was forced to retire against Benjamin Becker with a back injury. Ljubicic was leading the German 6-4, 1-0 with a break in the second set when he had to quit the match.

Rafael Nadal opened his 2010 Sony Ericsson Open campaign on Friday night with a 6-4 6-3 win over Taylor Dent.

Playing Dent for the first time, the former World No. 1 won all four break points he held on the American’s serve, which also delivered six aces and six double faults. By comparison Nadal’s serving stats were less dramatic, serving only two aces and no double faults.

Nadal is seeking his first singles title since early May 2009 (Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome), having gone winless in his last 12 Tour events.

The Spaniard’s best results in Miami have been a pair of runner-up finishes, in 2005 (l. to Federer in five sets) and 2008 (l. to Davydenko).

In the third round Nadal meets a resurgent David Nalbandian, on the comeback trail after hip surgery last year. The Argentinian wild card defeated No. 30 seed Viktor Troici, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

In the men’s night match Andy Roddick did what he needed to in his first match of the 2010 Sony Ericsson Open, defeating Russian Igor Andreev, 6-4, 6-4. Roddick blasted 12 aces and saved the only break point he faced in the one-hour, 20-minute encounter.

“I played okay,” said Roddick. “I think the second set was better than the first. Conditions are so much different here than Palm Springs; you’re in 90% humidity. All of a sudden the ball is not really jumping or going anywhere.

In another late match No. 8 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga served 15 aces in his defeat of Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, 6-4, 6-3.

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Justine Henin again proved too strong for Elena Dementieva as she knocked the fifth seed out of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami at the second-round stage with a comprehensive 6-3 6-2 win.

Henin, who is a wildcard in Miami as she continues her comeback, beat Dementieva in the second round of this year’s Australian Open.

While that was a hard-fought encounter, the Belgian coming through 7-5 7-6 (8/6), this was a far more one-sided affair.

Henin did not even concede a break point in the first set and broke three times in the second to win in a little under 90 minutes.

Henin’s compatriot Kim Clijsters, seeded 14 here, had an even easier day’s work, brushing aside Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic 6-1 6-1 in 52 minutes.

Second seed Caroline Wozniacki was forced to work hard by qualifier Tsvetana Pironkova, before prevailing 3-6 6-3 6-4.

Ninth seed Samantha Stosur was also forced to come from a set down as she beet Carla Suarez Navarro 4-6 7-5 6-2.

Seventh seed Jelena Jankovic emerged victorious against Ukrainian qualifier Mariya Koryttseva.

The 25-year-old Serbian, ranked eighth in the world, claimed six of eight break point chances to win 6-4 6-0 in an hour and a half as she looked to claim back-to-back tournament triumphs after winning in Indian Wells.

Fourth seed Victoria Azarenka cruised past Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania 6-3 6-2 in one hour and 12 minutes, claiming four of six break-point opportunities in the match.

There were straight-sets wins for seeds Vera Zvonareva, Francesca Schiavone, Shahar Peer and Elena Vesnina.

Zheng Jie was less fortunate, with the 20th seed from China losing 6-4 6-2 to Virginie Razzano of France.

Lucie Safarova saw off another seeded opponent Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, with the Czech winning the match 6-4 6-7 (3-7) 6-2, while 24th seed Alisa Kleybanova slipped 6-4 7-5 to Sara Errani.

Dominika Cibulkova, seeded 26th, was comfortable in a 6-0 6-2 victory over Sweden’s Sofia Arvidsson while 32nd seed Maria Kirilenko of Russia fought back from a set down to beat Hungary’s Melinda Czink.

Another Russian, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, knocked out Tamira Paszek 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 6-3.

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Former champion Novak Djokovic has been beaten in his opening match at the Sony Ericsson Open.

The No. 2-ranked Djokovic lost to Olivier Rochus 6-2, 6-7 (7), 6-4 Friday.

Djokovic double-faulted 10 times and lost 30 of 44 second-serve points, including 13 of 17 in the final set. He committed 62 unforced errors and converted only three of 13 break-point chances. He has repeated this similar pettern of play in his last 5 matches, but has been able to pull off miraculous comebacks to win. His luck ran out at Indian Wells against Ljubicic, and again today.

Djokovic won the tournament in 2007 and arrived at Key Biscayne with a 15-3 record this year. But he looked listless at times against Rochus, and by the third set fans were groaning as his errors mounted.

The Serb drew scattered jeers when he left the court, and he responded with a thumbs-up signal.

Americans James Blake and Sam Querrey lost to Thomas Bellucci and Jeremy Chardy respectively.

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It has become apparent that the promotors of the Sony Ericsson tournament in Miami have their priorities pointed in the wrong direction. First off they have created a program of off court events that to the majority of fans are a total waste of time. They went ahead with an on court event named the Glam-Slam which was an unmitigated disaster, and a person didn’t need a crystal ball to have forecast its result.

The one area where they need promotion is on TV, and it has been non-existant. Now as the weekend looms we are going to be able to see some tennis, but this is after 6 days of competition! Even the TennisTV.com exclusive stream was unavailable. Every other event(including the 4 Grand Slams, the Davis Cup and the Fed Cup) is streamed on Eurosport, Fromsport, JustinTV etc for free, but not this poorly run, hyped-up excuse for a tennis event. If Sony Ericcson is responsible for this policy, then I for one will be glad to see them as a non-title sponsor in the future. If it’s the WTA and the ATP who are responsible, then they too need to reevaluate who their base of support really is.

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