Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium

After a disappointing performance at Indian Wells, the top three Belgian women look poised to make a move at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. Yanina Wickmayer (12), Kim Clijsters (14) and Justine Henin cannot be happy after rusty outings last week.

Henin was awarded a wild card but remains unseeded. The 5’6” former number one moved briskly past American Jill Craybas 6-2, 6-2 in round one. Henin’s unsteady serving as been her demise but she showed no signs of retreat on Tuesday.

Top seeded Svetlana Kusnetsova, 2nd seeded Caroline Wozniacki, 3rd seeded Venus Williams and fourth seeded defending champion Victoria Azarenka received first round byes and are scheduled to begin play today. Williams is a three-time champion at Miami and will be hoping to ride her big serve to a fourth title. Last year, Azarenka turned away Serena Williams in the finals to grab her most impressive tournament title.

Other first round winners on Tuesday were Carla Suarez Navarro, Virginia Razzano, hard-hitting Sara Errani, Andrea Petkovic, Patty Schnyder, Melinda Cink and American upset specialist Melanie Oudin.

Ironically, in a repeat of the Australian Open, Henin will face 5th seeded Elena Dementieva in the featured second round match. Henin blew past Elena at Melbourne to reach the finals. Henin is one dangerous wild card and it is Dementieva’s bad fortune that she has landed her twice.

Oudin will move out to play 11th seed Vera Zvonareva, one of the tour’s hottest players. With Oudin, it is all about her serve. She has worked hard to add velocity and depth to her greatest weakness.

Jalena Jankovic is seeded 7th and will be trying to continue the run that earned her the Indian Wells trophy. She is in Azarenka’s quarter bracket and will mot likely face hard serving Samantha Stosur in the fourth round. Last week she cleanly dismissed the Stosur serve in straight sets.

Azarenka is poised to face Clijsters in the 4th round in a key battle of possible champions. The top seed looks to have a favorable draw but of late Kuznetsova has lost surprising matches. She will most likely face Wickmayer or Na Li in the quarters.

Venus Williams will face a challenge from Nadia Petrova in the fourth round with the winner most likely facing Agnes Radwanska in the quarters. Wozniacki looks to have a clear path to the quarters where she would meet the Dementieva-Henin winner. Of course, as Indian Wells pointed out, there are some hungry women out there and upsets can happen at any level.

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