Miami: Day 3 Crisis Center

[[Once again, TW's friend in Florida, Lance Harke - long known to most regulars here as "Todd and in Charge" -  is acting as our eyes and ears down in Miami over the first week of this event, including qualifying. - PB]]

by Lance Harke, Contributing Editor

It was hot and sunny today at the Sony Ericsson Open as Venus, Kimmy, and James Blake all returned to the purple courts of Key Biscayne.

I only caught the third set of the Clijsters/Gajdosova match, but from what I saw at that point Kimmy had shaken off the rust and powered through to a convincing 4-6, 6-1, 6-0 win.

Venus, playing for the first time in nearly seven months after announcing her battle with Sjogren's Syndrome, seemed unusually animated and vocal on court, punctuating many points with expressive gestures and sounds.  She played aggressively too, rushing the net and returning serves at a lightning pace.  While my assessment is she stills needs more court time and she wasn't really tested by the veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm, there were occasional flashes of her dominating serve (five aces) and powerful strokes.

The three-time Sony champion will need a lot more of that as she faces Kvitova on Friday.

Let's talk James Blake and Davydenko.  To me James Blake is still the maddeningly inconsistent player he's always been, capable of on-court brilliance (blazing returns, booming serves, inside-the-baseline forehand rippers) yet just as prone to tactical errors, poor movement, a misfiring backhand, and a defeatist attitude.

Which James Blake was on court today?  All of him.  For a moment in the third set I truly believed Blake was going to break Davy to go up 5-4 and serve out the match.  Yet less than two minutes later the match was over and Davy was through 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.  Now ranked 40 in the world, Davy still is a fantastic counterpuncher who can be very dangerous when the conditions are right -- high bouncing balls and an opponent with one or more weaknesses.  With Blake he found plenty.  We'll see if the 2008 winner will find any in John Isner on Friday.

I also watched Shahar Peer defeat Alize Cornet 6-4, 6-2.  Though I know Peer has had some disappointments recently (losing in the first round to a qualifier at Indian Wells, for example), her ground strokes looked deep and consistent and in general she seemed to be playing better than when I saw her last year.  Will that be enough to defeat Shrieky in the second round?  Magic 8-ball says: not likely.

You can follow my tweets from the Sony at @lharke.