The spring portion of the 2009 hardcourt season is over, as the tennis world now shifts to the clay of Europe. Before turning our attention to the red dirt of Monte Carlo, Rome, Madrid, and Paris, it’s worth taking a final look at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.

The two singles finals in South Florida might have been lacking in drama or quality, but they definitely generated a lot more intrigue for the rest of this season. Two ascendant champions at the Crandon Park Tennis Center might still face a lot of questions on clay, but their competitive chops could enable them to win matches regardless of the obstacles they might face.

On the women’s side, Victoria Azarenka bagged the biggest championship of her young career, as the 19-year-old took down an injured Serena Williams, 6-3, 6-1. While it’s true that Williams had her left thigh heavily wrapped during this 72-minute match, Azarenka still had to play poised tennis under pressure. Some players (think Daniela Hantuchova in the fourth round of Wimbledon in 2007 against a hobbling Serena) can’t concentrate when an opponent is walking wounded, so it was impressive that Azarenka could find focus against an unfit foe. Not every player in the women’s game would have been able to handle the big-event nerves associated with a Miami final.

While Serena failed to win her sixth title at Crandon Park, followers of the WTA Tour shouldn’t be thunderstruck by Azarenka’s latest conquest. The young Belorussian has a 23-2 record in 2009, clearly the best mark of anyone on the WTA Tour. Serena and Venus still figure to be the only ones left standing when Wimbledon and the U.S. Open roll around, but when the French Open comes calling, Azarenka could very well find herself playing late into the second week at Stade Roland Garros. Women’s tennis has been so unpredictable in recent years because few players have managed to display tremendous consistency from week to week; if any woman other than the Williams sisters can develop a killer instinct, that player will become the third prominent contender at any major event. Azarenka now has every chance to become that formidable third wheel in the world of women’s tennis.

In the men’s tournament in Miami, Andy Murray–after reaching the final at Indian Wells two weeks earlier–went one step better and conquered Crandon Park by taking down Novak Djokovic, 6-2, 7-5. Murray showed his mastery of the moment by winning one set in lopsided fashion, and another set by a narrow margin after overcoming a one-break deficit. While Djokovic lamented his continuing inability to physically withstand punishing midday heat, Murray–who has a residence just blocks away from stadium court–was able to summon up his best tennis at the right moments. Health issues might have hampered his efforts at the Australian Open back in January, but outside of that stumble, Murray has been a supremely consistent force on the ATP Tour. The two finals in Indian Wells and Miami represent a substantial achievement, as do Murray’s wins this year over world No. 2 Roger Federer. Murray hasn’t made a deep run at the French Open, but in light of the Scot’s steadily upward trajectory in the men’s tennis cosmos, a strong showing in Paris is hardly out of the question. One needs a great deal of stamina to play at a high level throughout the spring hardcourt season, so when the 21-year-old travels to Europe for several weeks on the red dirt, he should be able to grind out wins against lesser players.

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Here’s a brief look at some of the other stories to emerge from the Sony Ericsson Open:

* Del Potro Power: Rafael Nadal has nothing to be ashamed of. The world No. 1, after winning the title at Indian Wells, endured extended matches in Miami and had little left in the tank as the week continued in South Florida. The biggest story of the men’s event outside of Murray’s mountaintop moment was not Nadal’s loss to Juan Martin Del Potro; no, it was Del Potro’s ability to beat Nadal. A thrilling three-set win, capped in a tense final-set tiebreak, gave the Argentine much more than the fifth spot in the latest ATP rankings; it allowed Del Potro to revel in the biggest win of his career.

It was hardly a secret that “Delpo” needed to increase his fitness level and improve his court coverage in order to become a better player, and against Nadal, those qualities were very much in evidence. Many of the match’s best rallies also came on the most important points, and it was Del Potro, not Rafa, who managed to have the final say on more occasions than not. Criticism of Nadal, after a match laden with drama, is quite misguided; Thursday’s consequential quarterfinal should only serve as cause to praise a rising 20-year-old who is growing with each tournament he plays.

* Wacky Women: There’s a reason why the Williams sisters (and before them, Justine Henin) have towered over everyone else in Grand Slam events other than the French Open, where Americans perpetually struggle: Simply stated, the rest of the WTA Tour involves a fair share of headcases.

One has to remember that, with due respect to the victorious Victoria Azarenka, the Williamses likely would have met in the finals had the draw allowed for such a possibility. The semifinal sister showdown offered the best match of the tournament on the women’s side, all while the other half of the bracket featured volatile and unpredictable tennis.

Azarenka did well to defeat Svetlana Kuznetsova in the other women’s semi, but the Belorussian–for all her talents–still had to fight deep into a third set instead of polishing off her opponent in straights. Kuznetsova, for her part, endured an up-and-down quarterfinal against 18-year-old Caroline Wozniacki. One moment, ”The Kooze” looked like an elite competitor; the next moment, the 23-year-old Russian turned into a shrinking violet with absolutely no mental toughness whatsoever.

The rest of the women’s tournament featured similarly baffling displays from highly-ranked players. Dinara Safina, Jelena Jankovic, Elena Dementieva, and Ana Ivanovic all fell well short of expectations after crashing out in the early rounds. As steady as the best men’s tennis players have proven to be, the upper-tier members of the women’s tour haven’t delivered the goods with any appreciable degree of consistency. If the spring hardcourt season revaled anything about the status of WTA tennis, it’s that Victoria Azarenka is the only woman who is reliably living up to her potential.