The title was the second of the year for Clijsters, who won the Sydney tournament in January.Kuerten and Schuettler had to wait overnight to complete their match, which was suspended Saturday evening after a wait of nearly 5½ hours. Kuerten won the first set on Saturday, and Schuettler took the first game of the second set before rain halted play. Hewitt had defeated Spadea 7–6 (5), 6–1 before the rain started.Meanwhile, Wayne Ferreira says the proposed breakaway International Men’s Tennis Association will be formed when a group of players meet during the Miami Masters, which started yesterday. Ferreira, who won the doubles title at Indian Wells when he and Yevgeny Kafelnikov beat the Americans Bob and Mike Bryan on Sunday, said more than 20 players would sign on and that it would “launch next week”.The ATP Players’ Council vice president, Todd Woodbridge, said last Tuesday the IMTA would fizzle out “They don’t have enough support,” he said.

“It’s unlikely they’ll get off the ground because what they are proposing is already in place.”. Serena Williams is due to receive an award here tomorrow evening as the most quotable player in women’s tennis, which is remarkable considering how much of the talking is done by her racket. “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail,” she said after winning Wimbledon last July. But before reporters had time to make a note of the pun, Serena laughed and owned up “That’s my Dad,” she said. “Sorry.”There is no need for her to apologise for the brutal eloquence of her game, which has subdued all her rivals, including the closest, “Big Sis” Venus. Moreover, she could not give an ITWA (International Tennis Writers’ Association) about constant suggestions that the long-running Sister Act threatens to close the show.”A lot of people in the beginning were saying we were boring,” Serena acknowledged yesterday.

“I don’t know why they said that, but that died quick, that died really fast. No one even says that any more.”One reason for the antipathy towards the Williams family was that their story – poor African-American sisters, guided by their father, defy gangs and guns en route to tennis fame and riches – seemed too good to be true. Another reason was that when Venus and Serena played against each other their matches tended to be accompanied by rumours of collusion.Serena’s victory against Venus, the defending champion, 6-2, 6-2, in the semi-finals of the Nasdaq-100 Open here last March, was a case in point. A large portion of the crowd jeered throughout the lop-sided match, which was completed after 51 minutes. It was only the second time Serena had beaten Venus in seven matches (not counting a controversial walk-over in the semi-finals at Indian Wells the previous year).Since then Serena has eclipsed her sister, supplanting Venus as the world No 1 and defeating her in four consecutive Grand Slam finals, starting at the French Open last June.

The athleticism and weight of shot displayed, particularly in their duels last year at Wimbledon and the United States Open and at the Australian Open in January this year, seems to have dispelled much of the scepticism.”There’s not a day that goes by,” Serena said, “that I don’t run into someone who says, ‘I never watched tennis until you guys came, and if you guys aren’t playing, I don’t watch still.’ So I think we’re definitely bringing a lot of people to the game of tennis.”You gotta admit there’s not too many black people who were watching tennis before Same with golf [before Tiger Woods] I never watched golf personally I’m sure a lot of people felt like that with the tennis. People just never watched it until Venus and I started playing Black people – just a lot of people People just of colour, people just in general. It does not necessarily have to be African-American, I get that from everyone. So I definitely think we’ve had a positive impact in tennis, and I think people are realising that.”Serena, who defeated Jennifer Capriati in the final here last year, is about to open the defence of her title, having missed tournaments in Scottsdale and Indian Wells because of tendinitis to her left knee.Defeating Capriati after dethroning Venus here were key moments in Serena’s rise to supremacy. More impressive – shocking is perhaps a better description – was the way she dismantled Martina Hingis in the quarter-finals, 6-4, 6-0, after 59 minutes. The Swiss former world No 1 won only two points in the first four games of the second set, which flashed by in 20 minutes, and hit only four winners in the match.Sore feet may have caused Hingis to abandon tennis at the age of 22, but the Williams sisters certainly contributed to the wear and tear on her psyche.