Serena, Sharapova, Wozniacki, Clijsters advance at Miami

The women’s favorites at the bottom half of the draw at the Miami 2012 tennis tournament all advanced by posting victories over unseeded opponents. World #2 Maria Sharapova, #4 Caroline Wozniacki, 5-time champion Serena Williams and former #1 Kim Clijsters moved to the third round with victories on March 22, Thursday. #2 Maria Sharapova had to come from behind to beat former semi-finalist Shahar Peer 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 on Stadium Court. After dropping serve twice in the first set, Sharapova was broken just once over the next two sets, defeating Peer in two hours and 24 minutes to improve to a 6-0 record against the Israeli.

In the featured ladies night match, #4-seed Wozniacki advanced by beating Barbora Zahlavova Strycova. Wozniacki, who had not reached a tournament final this year and has dropped out of the Top 5 rankings despite being ranked #1 in January won the last seven games of her match for a 6-4 6-0 victory.

Five-time Sony Ericsson Open winner Serena beat Chinese wild card entry Zhang Shuai by breaking serve three times in the first set en route to a 6-2, 6-3 win. Serena is playing her first tournament after losing in the fourth round of the Australian Open last January. She is seeded 10th and advanced to the third round where she will face No. 21 Roberta Vinci of Italy. The 13-time Grand Slam champion is now 53-6 in the Miami tennis tournament and holds the record for the most match wins among all active players

Four-time Grand Slam winner Kim Clijsters indicated her title ambitions by eliminating #14-seed German and Dubai finalist Julia Goerges 6-2, 7-5. Clijsters is unseeded this year after dropping out of the top 32 rankings and did not draw a bye in the first round. She’ll meet fellow Belgian #23-seed Yanina Wickmayer in the third round.

#8-seed Li Na also advanced, beating qualifier Melinda Czink 6-2, 7-5. Na will next face Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic in the third round.

Two notable losses on Thursday’s action included Young American Christina McHale losing to Petra Cetkovska, the #29-seed. McHale was leading 6-0, 4-0 when her more experienced opponent won 13 of the last 15 games to eliminate McHale in two hours and 10 minutes. Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 2006 champion, lost to Benesova 1-6, 7-6(7), 7-6(7).