Mara leaves Miami after the doubles quarterfinal

The doubles, too, were an easy ride for Mara Santangelo in the Miami tournament, the fifth in world importance together with the great slams.

The tennis player from Trento, in fact, who reached the eighth-finals in the singles, yielding to the Russian player and eventual semi-finalist Chakvetadze after beating world-ranking no. 9, the Serbian Jankovic, did well to get into the quarterfinals alongside the Australian tennis player Stewart.

In the eighth-finals the Santangelo-Stewart couple got the better of the favoured no. 4, the Czech Peschke and the other Australian Stubbs, by 7-6 (7-3) 6-3, then in the quarter-finals Mara and her Australian companion were halted by the fearsome couple formed of the Swiss Martina Hingis and the Czech Daniela Hantuchova, respectively no. 6 and no. 12 in the singles, and therefore a couple of the highest level.

Santangelo had to yield with 6-1 6-2. This Miami tournament was nevertheless a fantastic athletics experience for Santangelo, a Florida which smiled on our Mara, a world champion now concentrating on the defence of the Fed Cup she won in Belgium in September 2006.

On 21st April at Castellaneta Mara, Schiavone, Pennetta, Garbin and Vinci will be defending their title in the first round of the world competition against dangerous China.