Battle Royale: Miami CC

*[ News Alert - Tom Perrotta will be blogging the Serena Williams - Justine Henin match this afternoon.  You can catch his commentary at*[String Theory. ]]

As for me, I've had a busy few days here with tennis and personal chores (is there anything less fun than scheduling doctor's appointments, especially when it's all routine stuff?), but will be leaving for Miami tomorrow, and providing Sony Ericsson Open coverage for the rest of the event, live. As you know, Tom Perrotta is already in the breech on Key Biscayne.

Like everyone else, I'm eager to see what happens when Justine meets Serena. You probably remember that last year's encounter between them was a classic. Williams had rough sailing and had to fend off two match points (make that championship points) before she righted her ship and sailed to the win - although pitched and rolled and ploughed probably would more appropriate verbs. This is the most intriguing rivalry in the WTA game and, appropriately enough, the women are presently tied with six wins each. But while Serena won four of their first five meetings, Henin has bagged five of the last seven, including the three most recent.

The flow of the rivalry seems to favor Henin, but this is one of those situations where all sorts of surprises and extraneous issues, ranging from injuries to personal struggles to motivational difficulties, has probably influenced the outcome to an unusual degree. This time, though, the air seems relatively clear of ambiguities. The only problem I foresee is that matches that are inflated with expectations have a funny way of failing to live up to them.

In retrospect, Williams win in last year's final, coupled with her triumph at the Australian Open two months earlier, boosted her stock to a higher level than it had been since back in the day of the "Serena Slam." Thus, her subsequent fade was one of the most surprising stories of the year. Given that Miami is Williams's "home" tournament (she's won here four times), it would be both an appropriate and ambition-friendly place for her to declare that she's going to challenge Henin for the top-ranking this year. As she said, "We definitely bring out some of the best tennis in each other. And she tends to play really well against me -- probably better against me than other opponents. So it's definitely a good match for me."

And how about Justine? Does she wince when she recalls how she allowed last year's clash to slip away? Not the way she tells it: "Actually it's a very good memory from last year, even if I had match points and I lost the match, it was a day that I understood that I could win against Serena - and that I could do it in Grand Slams three times in the same year."

Each of the women, in her own way, has fired a shot across the bow of the other with those comments. So sit back and enjoy the battle royale.