V. Williams, Clijsters, Blake and Gonzalez Play Wednesday at the Sony Ericsson Open

Written by: Staff on 20th March 2012

V. Williams, Clijsters, Blake and Gonzalez Play Wednesday at the Sony Ericsson Open |

Sharapova, Wozniacki, Baghdatis and Querrey to play Thursday

MIAMI, Fla. (www.sonyericssonopen.com) – Fans don’t have to wait until the weekend to catch great matches at the Sony Ericsson Open. Seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams, former World No. 1 Kim Clijsters, along with American James Blake and 2008 Sony Ericsson Open winner Nikolay Davydenko take to the purple courts on the Wednesday, March 21 day session.

Wednesday’s evening session will offer two banner match-ups. 19-year-old American Christina McHale, who is ascending up the rankings this season on the wings of a quarter-final finish in Doha and a fourth-round result last week in Indian Wells, takes on Galina Voskoboeva. Playing in the final tournament of his 13-year career, fan favorite Fernando Gonzalez of Chile will take on Nicholas Mahut of France.

Tickets to the 2012 Sony Ericsson Open are on sale now and can be purchased by phone (305-442-3367) or via internet at www.sonyericssonopen.com. An electrifying two weeks of tennis conclude with the women’s final on Saturday, March 31 and the men’s final on Sunday, April 1.

Three-time winner at the Sony Ericsson Open, Venus Williams, will be playing in her first WTA event since last year’s US Open. She will face Japan’s Kimiko Date-Krumm.

Four-time Grand Slam champion Kim Clijsters is also up on the day card for Wednesday, her first event since her run to the semifinals at the Australian Open. Clijsters will be looking to add a third to her tally of two Sony Ericsson Open titles when she takes on Jarmila Gajdosova in the first round.

American James Blake and Russian Nikolay Davydenko, former No. 4 and No. 3 in the world, respectively, face each other in the first round. Davydenko was the Sony Ericsson Open singles champion in 2008, but Blake has a compelling edge against him, having won all seven of their previous career meetings.

On Thursday, March 22, world No. 2 Maria Sharapova begins her quest for her first Sony Ericsson Open title after three finals’ appearances, including at last year’s tournament. She will be joined in the day session by Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, making his sixth appearance in Miami.

The night matches for Thursday will showcase former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniaki, along with American Sam Querrey, who takes the court for a first round encounter against Australia’s Matthew Ebden.

Times for Wednesday’s matches will be released Tuesday, while Thursday’s times will be released on Wednesday.

Topics: Sony Ericsson Open