Like most matches between these two players, it was a fairly straightforward serving exhibition.

And like most matches between these two players, it was the American who emerged victorious.

With a break in each set, #6 Andy Roddick defeated #16 Tomas Berdych 7-5, 6-4 to win the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne.

Despite his prowess on American hard courts, Roddick had not so much as made the final nine American Masters Series events he entered.  But his fortunes have certainly changed in 2010, making the final of Indian Wells two weeks ago, and winning Miami for the second time in his career on Sunday.  It's his second title of 2010, making Roddick the third ATP player to win two titles this year (and the first to not have both be of the lowly 250 variety).

Roddick did not face a break point during the entire match, thanks not only to his serve, but also to his incredibly deft use of the backhand slice shot that has really developed into a weapon under Larry Stefanki's tutelage.

Berdych played pretty decently in the final, and should be incredibly happy with his week, which included impressive wins over Roger Federer, Fernando Verdasco, and Robin Soderling.  If he can keep playing this well, no reason he can't make a lot of noise the rest of the year.  He has no weak surface to speak of, so the clay shouldn't slow his momentum much.

Roddick, too, could make a fair amount of noise on clay.  He's made it deep into Masters events in both Rome and Madrid in the last couple of years, and he's playing better now than he was then.  With the right draws, Roddick could actually play up to his rankings on a consistent basis on clay for the first time in his career this year.

For the first six rounds of this tournament, Venus Williams was the clear favorite.  The ten match win streak she came to Miami with grew to fifteen by the final, only once put in any real jeopardy along the way.  She was moving well, serving well, and hitting the ball cleanly off both sides.

For the first six rounds of the tournament, anyway.

In Saturday's Women's Singles final, Venus Williams looked like anything but the favorite.  Her movement impaired by an apparent knee injury, the #3 seed fell to #14 seed Kim Clijsters in a rout, by the score of 6-2, 6-1.

Clijsters played well, but it's hard to imagine a player who wouldn't have beaten Williams with how incapacitated she looked out there.  The three games she won were more the result of Clijsters' rushing, hasty style than any sort of signs of life.

It's a big title for Clijsters, to be sure, but she didn't make it look pretty.  She cruised through the early part of her draw, but her match against Henin in the semifinals goes down as one of the sloppiest matches of the year in the WTA so far, which is saying something.  Clijsters should be able to make a lot of noise on clay, but for whatever reason she's lacked confidence on the surface recently.  But cracking the top ten only eight tournaments into her come back should give her some swagger, though, one would think.

The elder Williams had won Miami in three of her first four appearances at the tournament ('98, '99, '01), but has not hoisted the trophy since.  And while this loss has been a disappointment, she's still played better for most of this tournament than she did at any point during 2009.  A sixth Wimbledon title certainly appears likely based on previous form, but if that knee keeps her as ineffective as she was Saturday, making it to the second week would be a stretch.

...And thank God for that.

Sorry for the lack of coverage this week on what seems to be a pretty excellent tournament.  I've caught some of the action in streams, including a very sloppy win for Kim Clijsters over Justine Henin in a semifinal which neither player seemed especially eager to win at the end. 

FSN needs to stop showing tennis.  They just need to stop.  ESPN used to do a great job with this event, and Tennis Channel has also done well with the parts of it that it has been able to air.  But FSN's tennis coverage, on the rare occasion it makes it to the Washington DC area, is always terrible.  They tape delay it frivolously, preempt it for anything, and have the lowest production values of any network.

I did, however, get to see all of Tomas Berdych's upset of Roger Federer, which was shown on Tennis Channel.  Neither played exceptionally from wire to wire, but the cojones that Berdych showed in the last three points of the match, to go for broke when it mattered much, really impressed me.  When I interviewed him last year, Berdych seemed to think that once he lost any momentum against Federer, all hope was lost.  With that revelation fresh in my mind, I expected Berdych to wilt after losing the first set.  But he hung tough, and notched one of his biggest wins in the last several years.  He pulled off another upset against Fernando Verdasco in the quarters, and I'm hoping he can make it three in a row against Robin Soderling tonight in the semifinals.

I'm willing to bet that both the top seed and defending champion of a major tournament like Miami have gone home on the same day before, but I'm also willing to bet that never before have both exited with a 6-0 set.

That's just what happened today to #1 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova and #4 seed and defending champion Victoria Azarenka in the fourth round of the Sony Ericsson Open on Monday. 

Kuznetsova was struggling with a shoulder problem in her 6-3, 6-0 loss to #13 seed Marion Bartoli, but even without the ailment her early exit is not much of a surprise.  Kuznetsova is prone to going down with a whimper more often than perhaps any other player who has spent significant time in the upper echelons of the game.  Her game, especially on faster surfaces, is so ridiculously offensively slanted that all any player has to do is get the first couple balls back to have a good shot at beating her on one of her off days.

Azarenka's exit is also nothing we haven't seen before, those her 6-4, 6-0 ousting came at the far more capable hands of #14 seed Kim Clijsters.  Frustrated after losing the first set, Azarenka disappeared completely in the second set.  Balls were sprayed, f-bombs were dropped, and the defending champion made quick work of herself.

The parity in the women's game, especially in a major tournament which Serena Williams is missing, makes for some entertainingly unpredictable stuff.  #3 seed Venus Williams is considered the favorite by many to win this title, but she hasn't won an outdoor hard court tournament in the United States since New Haven way back in 2002. 

Even though the month is coming to an end, it's a good bet that this sort of madness in the WTA will extend far beyond March.

In the summer of 2009, Sorana Cirstea looked poised to become the new tennis "It Girl."  With Ana Ivanovic vacating her throne through a prolonged spell of poor results, the19-year old Romanian had the game, the exotic origins, and the looks to fill that void.

A surprising run to the quarterfinals of the French Open made Cirstea look like an even surer bet to be the next big thing.  She was unseeded and ranked outside the top forty, but upset both Caroline Wozniacki and Jelena Jankovic before losing to Samantha Stosur.  The rest of her summer wasn't spectacular, but it did include wins over quality opponents like Wozniacki, Sabine Lisicki, and  Agnieszka Radwanska, all of which came during a run to the semifinals in Los Angeles.

Cirstea went into the 2009 US Open with a career high ranking and seed of #24.  She lived up to that seed, but fell in the third round to Wozniacki.

From then on, it's been a rough ride for her.  Cirstea failed to win another match the rest of 2009, going 0-5 and dropping out of the top thirty.  Her early 2010 has been not much better, seeing her post a record of 3-8 that includes wins over #92 Kaia Kanepi and #142 Olivia Rogowska, neither of whom are particularly important feathers in anyone's cap.  She has been bageled twice, by Melanie Oudin and Sharon Fichman, neither of whom are known for dominating matches on a regular basis.

Last night in Miami was another loss for Cirstea, albeit a respectable 6-4, 6-3 loss to #3 Venus Williams, who remains my pick to win this tournament.  But a respectable loss is still a loss, a pattern which is becoming more and more prevalent in Cirstea's career.

So what happened to derail Cirstea's shooting star? It could be any number of things.  Seeing a player she's beaten like Caroline Wozniacki  Cirstea's game also never built in any real margin for error, meaning that even a slight loss of form could mean that everything is completely off.  She had a fairly slow start to last year as well, but as she played more she got into a rhythm that eventually hit its peak at the French Open.  But is that the one peak Sorana Cirstea will experience in her entire career?

It may seem cruel to say that this player who is still a teenager for another couple weeks may already have peaked, but that's the way tennis works. 

I now turn the question over to you--Is Sorana Cirstea's best ahead of her, or already behind her?

There haven't been too many stories out of Miami so far this week, except for the occasional ridiculous outfit being worn to the Players' Party.  There are an incredible number of wild cards and qualifiers in the draw, which has largely made for some pretty uncompetitive matches.

But one match that did stick out to me was the match between Switzerland's Timea Bacsinszky and American qualifier Bethanie Mattek-Sands, a match which Bacsinszky won in two tight sets by the scoreline of 6-4, 6-4.

Bacsinszky is one of the most aggressive, go-for-broke players on the tour, a tendency apparent in her serving stats alone, as her five aces were somewhat undermined by four double faults.   She's also a tremendous player at the tightest junctures of matches, winning more break points than Mattek-Sands was able to (4 to 2), with fewer break points (10 to 13).

Bacsinszky, whose parents hailed from Hungary, hasn't had a big run at a slam like Mattek-Sands, and has grabbed nowhere near the buzz for her on-court look. but she does have one important asset that Mattek-Sands is yet to attain: a WTA title, which Bacsinszky won for the first time in Luxembourg last October.

And while her clothing contract with Lacoste prevents her from taking the same liberties with her clothing as Mattek-Sands is known for, her enormous hoop earrings, Amy Winehouse-esque eye makeup, and enormous hip-hop blasting white earphones make her pretty tough to miss at any tournament.

Ranked just outside the top 50 at #54, Bacsinszky is definitely a player to watch in the coming months, especially on her native clay courts this spring.  Her next match at Miami pits her against heavily-favored #8 seed Li Na, but look for Bacsinszky to have a pretty respectable showing.