World number one Serena Williams will not play the next week’s Sony Ericsson Open in Miami because of a knee injury, which is the third bad news regarding the women’s draw, as Maria Sharapova and second-ranked Dinara Safina had already pulled out.

Serena Williams’ withdrawal is a special blow to the tournament because the American is a five-time Miami singles champion, and was a runner-up last year to Victoria Azarenka.

Venus Williams and Svetlana Kuznetsova will now headline the women's field at the Sony Ericsson Open. (photo: Upali Wickramasinghe)

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Second seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark eased past Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland to reach the BNP Paribas Open title match for her first WTA final of the season.

Wozniacki defeated the fifth-seeded Radwanska 6-2 6-3 in the semifinals, and as they are good friends, according to their agreement the Dane will be the one footing their dinner bill.

Awaiting the 19-year-old Wozniacki in the next match is sixth seed and former world No.1 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, whom Wozniacki hasn’t defeated in any of their three encounters.

Wozniacki is projected to reach career-high ranking of No.2 when the rankings are updated on Monday. (photo: Tidalist)

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World No.9 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia stormed into her 23rd career Sony Ericsson WTA Tour final, and the first one since last October, with a 6-2 6-4 victory over Samantha Stosur at Indian Wells.

The sixth-seeded Jankovic was two points away from defeat in the third round against unseeded Sara Errani, but hasn’t really been troubled since, cruising past Shahar Peer, Alisa Kleybanova, and now Samantha Stosur to reach the final. In the semifinal against the eighth-seeded Stosur, Jankovic broke the Australian twice in each set and benefited from her opponent’s 36 unforced errors and four double faults.

Despite the loss, the world No.11 Stosur has nothing to be sad about – she can be proud of playing the semifinals of a Premier-level tournament and will move into the Top 10 for the first time when the new rankings are released on Monday.

Jankovic’s opponent in the final will be either Caroline Wozniacki or Agnieszka Radwanska. None of the two has ever defeated Jankovic. (photo: Upali Wickramasinghe)

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The 26-year-old Clijsters, the reigning and two-time US Open champion, is very pleased with the partnership: "Citizen has had a long affiliation with tennis as the Official Timekeeper of the US Open, so a partnership with Citizen is a natural choice for me. Passion has always been a critical part of my tennis game, just like the passion that Citizen has put into the Signature Collection."

The Signature Collection was launched by Citizen Eco-Drive in Switzerland last year and it uses only the environmentally friendly Citizen Eco-Drive technology. (source: Kim Clijsters' official website)

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World number nine Jelena Jankovic reached her first semifinal of the season by beating Alisa Kleybanova 6-4 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.

The sixth-seeded Serb, a semifinalist at Indian Wells two years ago, won four straight games to come back from 2-4 down in the second set and win the error-strewn quarterfinal against the 23rd-seeded Russian. Jankovic made 21 unforced errors, while Kleybanova piled up a total of 40. However, the Russian was better in the number of winners, hitting 19 compared to Jankovic’s seven.

The 20-year-old Kleybanova was coming off her maiden WTA title at the Malaysian Open last month, and Jankovic ended her eight-match winning streak.

Jankovic’s semifinal opponent will be the winner of the Samantha Stosur vs. Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez match. The other two already known semifinalists are good friends Caroline Wozniacki and Agnieszka Radwanska. (photo by our reader Colleen)

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Fifth seed Agnieszka Radwanska eased past fourth seed Elena Dementieva 6-4 6-3 to move into the semifinals of the Premier-level tournament BNP Paribas Open, where the Pole will play close friend Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark who advanced to the final four with a 6-4 4-6 6-1 victory over seed No.18 Zheng Jie of China.

Radwanska converted six of her eight break opportunities against Dementieva, had her own serve broken only once, and hasn’t lost a set at Indian Wells. The Russian was left frustrated after the match, because the weather was perfect for tennis, but she played the wrong game, long rallies that suited Radwanska.

The second-seeded Wozniacki survived a difficult match against Zheng and defeated the Chinese for the first time in their three meetings. The 19-year-old Wozniacki broke Zheng three times in the third set and let out a shriek of delight the moment she won the match which ensures her return to her career-high ranking of No.3.

Even though they are good friends, Wozniacki and Radwanska have competed only twice so far on the tennis court and are tied at 1-1. (photos: Tidalist, chascow)

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All Top 10 members playing the BNP Paribas Open on Tuesday progressed to the quarterfinals of the tournament without too much trouble.

World No.7 Elena Dementieva and world No.8 Agnieszka Radwanska retained perfect records against their fourth-round opponents at Indian Wells with the Russian fourth seed beating No.19 seed Aravane Rezai 6-3 6-3, and now having a 6-0 career record against the Frenchwoman, while fifth seed Radwanska beat No.11 seed Marion Bartoli 6-3 6-2, extending the career record against the Wimbledon finalist to 5-0.

World No.4 Caroline Wozniacki, second seed and the highest seed left in the draw, recovered from a second set slump and charged through the deciding set to beat seed No.16 Nadia Petrova 6-3 3-6 6-0. Wozniacki's opponent in the quarterfinals will be Chinese force Zheng Jie, who knocked out Maria Sharapova in the third round and Alicia Molik in the fourth. Ninth-ranked Jelena Jankovic defeated No.17 seed Shahar Peer 6-2 6-2 to advance to the quarterfinals of the Premier-level tournament.

Even though all the Top 10 players progressed, defending champion Vera Zvonareva, seeded 12th, lost to No.8 seed Samantha Stosur 6-2 7-5. (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, photo: Tidalist)

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The Czech was once one of the brightest new stars, and her indisputably good looks only added to her popularity, but in the recent years her results were more than disappointing, especially having in mind her wasted talent.

The fact that Vaidisova lost in the first round of an ITF tournament this year is making her retirement from the sport less of a shocking decision. Her last tennis match was loss to Kaia Kanepi of Estonia in Memphis second round last month.

Vaidisova has just informed the upcoming Sony Ericsson Open in Miami that she’s rejecting a wildcard and pulled out of all her tournaments the rest of the season.

Vaidisova is ending her tennis career ranked 176th, with six WTA Tour titles under her belt – the last one came a long time ago, in Strasbourg in 2006. In addition, she can be proud of two semifinals Grand Slam showings, at the 2006 French Open and 2007 Australian Open. (source: Tennis Reporters, photo: Stephane Martinache)

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Two-time Indian Wells champion Kim Clijsters lost to Alisa Kleybanova 6-4 1-6 7-6(4) in the third round, despite storming through the second set and having a 4-0 lead in the third-set tiebreak.

"I definitely think I let it slip away but credit to her," said Clijsters after losing to the No.23 seed. "She played some really good points to get back into it."

Victoria Azarenka fell to 28th-seeded Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 7-6(4) 6-2 at the very tournament that propelled her into the Top 10 last year. The Belorussian quickly fell behind 5-1 and even though she saved four set points and leveled to 5-5, she lost the first set and shortly after the second as well.

Sixth-seeded Jelena Jankovic beat Sara Errani 2-6 7-6(6) 6-4 despite making 57 unforced errors compared to Errani's 42. The world No.9 quickly lost the first set, won the second in a tiebreak, and let her experience prevail in the decider of the marathon match to prevent Errani from scoring her first Top-10 victory in 12 attempts. (photo: Stephane Martinache)

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Sharapova made 14 double faults, 62 unforced errors and was broken seven times during the match. Zheng broke Sharapova's serve three times in the first set, then the Russian leveled after the second set which lasted one hour and eight minutes, and finally, Zheng came back from 3-1 down in the decider to win the match.

"She's like a ball machine. She hits a lot of balls back, hits them hard and deep. I should have done a much better job on her serve because that is definitely one of her weaker parts of the game," said the world No.13 Sharapova, who received treatment for her right elbow during the match.

The 26-year-old Chinese, a surprise semifinalist at this year's Australian Open, will next play Australian wildcard Alicia Molik. (source: Reuters, photo: Nick Bollettieri)

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