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US Open champion Kim Clijsters and home favourite Andy Roddick delivered near perfect performances on Saturday and Sunday respectively to win the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Florida. Clijsters joined an elite group of multiple time Miami winners by decimating three-time former champion Venus Williams 6-2, 6-1 in one of the most one-sided women's finals in Sony Ericsson Open history. The following day, 6th seed Andy Roddick ended his three year wait for a Master series title by beating a super hot Tomas Berdych in straight sets 7-5, 6-4 in the men's final. Other winners in Miami included Lukas Dlouhy & Leander Paes and Gisela Dulko & Flavia Pennetta in the men's and women's doubles finals respectively.

Kim Clijsters, working on a 'well-budgeted' first full season back on the WTA Tour due to her commitments to parenthood, made sure she made the most of her trip to Miami, surviving a long couple of weeks of tennis to walk away with $700,000 and enough ranking points to earn her a return to the top 10. Her opponent in Saturday's final, Venus Williams, had not won here since 2001 and sadly the day turned out to be a forgettable outing for the American and her fans who thronged the stadium in abundance.

Clijsters coasted through the contest 6-2, 6-1 helped significantly by 30 unforced errors from Williams. Venus, was on a 15-game unbeaten run heading into the final with wins in her last two tournaments in Dubai (read more) and Acapulco (read more), but as she rightly said at the end of her 58 minute debacle, "I was my own worst enemy today.

In the men's final, Andy Roddick too became a two-time champion in Miami, following up his win in 2004 with a solid performance against young Berdych in the championship match on Sunday. Roddick had just a couple of weeks ago fallen at the final hurdle at Indian Wells to another lower ranked player Ivan Ljubicic (read more) and was keen to ensure that the feat did not repeat itself this time around.

Berdych meanwhile had made a big name for himself this week by rocking three big boats - knocking off Roger Federer, Fernando Verdasco and Robin Soderling - enroute to the final. While the first couple of wins were hard fought slugfests, his win over Soderling in the semi-finals was a fantastic performance and he brought plenty of confidence with him into the final.

A record crowd of 14,000+ turned up for the final, and were treated to flawless serving in the first 10 games as neither player faced a break point. Roddick achieved the all important break in the 11th game and promptly served out the first set to love in the next. A break of serve early in the second set was all Roddick needed, and he raced through the rest of his service games once again without any pressure whatsoever to pick up this absolutely vital win.

The men's doubles final featured the battle of the two Indian legends as Davis Cup teammates and former partners Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi saw themselves on opposing sides of a tennis court on the final weekend. Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy played better on the day to notch up a comfortable 6-2, 7-5 win.

The ladies doubles final was a considerably closer affair as Dulko and Pennetta traded the first couple of sets with the more fancied pairing of Nadia Petrova and Samantha Stosur. The title headed into a deciding match tiebreak, which the Argentine-Italian duo nicked 10-7.

The tournament also played host to a special charity event termed 'Champions for Chile' to raise money for those affected by the earthquake in Chile. The event featured a fun doubles match in which Andy Roddick and Jim Courier took on Fernando Gonzalez and Gustavo Kuerten. The event raised over $125,000.

Finals:

Men's Singles
[6] A Roddick (USA) d [16] T Berdych (CZE) 75 64

Women's Singles
[14] K Clijsters (BEL) d [3] V Williams (USA) 62 61

Men's Doubles
[3] L Dlouhy (CZE) / L Paes (IND) d [4] M Bhupathi (IND) / M Mirnyi (BLR) 62 75

Women's Doubles
G Dulko (ARG) / F Pennetta (ITA) d [3] N Petrova (RUS) / S Stosur (AUS) 63 46 10-7

Champions For Chile
J. Courier / A. Roddick d F. Gonzalez / G. Kuerten 75 36 10-6

File Photograph Copyright: Constantini (Italian Open)

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