Henin handed tough road

Henin returns after nearly one month off since losing a Dubai quarter-final to Italy's Francesca Schianove. Henin has already taken titles this year in Sydney and Belgium and is 12-2 on the season.

Henin has a bye into a second-round match-up with either Angelique Kerber of Germany or Uzbekistan's Akgul Amanmuradova.

Defending Miami champion Serena Williams and reigning Wimbledon champion Venus Williams, who skipped last week's event at Indian Wells, are back in action and could meet each other in the semi-finals.

Sixth seed Venus opens in round two against either fellow American Jill Craybas or Poland's Maria Domachowska while eight-seeded Serena would meet Czech Klara Zakopalova or Romanian Edina Gallovits in her second-round debut.

Henin and Serena could meet in the quarter-finals in a rematch of last year's Miami final, in which Williams rallied to defeat Henin 0-6 7-5 6-3 for her 28th career crown. Serena also won a title this year at Bangalore.

Possibly awaiting in the semi-finals would be Venus Williams or Russian third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, the runner-up in last weekend's WTA event at Indian Wells.

Serbian world number two Ana Ivanovic, who lost to Maria Sharapova in the Australian Open final, won her sixth career title by defeating Kuznetsova 6-4, 6-3 in the Indian Wells final.

Sharapova dropped out of this event, citing fatigue.

Venus Williams won Miami titles in 1998, 1999 and 2001 but was ousted by Sharapova in the third round here last year.

Ivanovic opens in round two against France's Emilie Loit or Spain's Virginia Ruano Pascual with American Lindsay Davenport a possible third-round foe. She could meet Slovakian seventh seed Daniela Hantuchova in the quarter-finals.

Serbian fourth seed Jelena Jankovic will open against a qualifier or Swede Sofia Arvidsson while Russian fifth seed Anna Chakvetadze, her possible quarter-final foe, opens with either France's Alize Cornet or Austrian Tamira Paszek.