Miami Vice?

Andy Roddick tasted masters success for the first time in 4 years after victory in the final of the Sony Ericcson Open yesterday.

The American powerhouse defeated a rejuvenated Tomas Berdych 7-5 6-4 sends a message to the top 4 that, on a hard court at least, he will be a real threat this year.

Yet the timing of the American hard court masters in the calender for me has always seemed slightly strange.

After his most significant tournament victory in 4 years there is no ultimate prize for Roddick to push on to. Instead we move straight on the the clay in Europe.

The back to back masters at Indian Wells and Miami are almost positioned where a grand slam should be placed.

If you think about the role of the other masters tournaments in the calender then their location becomes all the more puzzling.

We have Monte Carlo, Rome and Madrid in the build up to the French Open, Toronto and Cincinnati ahead of the US Open and then Shanghai and Paris in the race to the O2 tour finals.

What do Indian Wells and Miami lead to?

The ATP could argue that the 1000 series represent strong independent tournaments in their own right and that they should not be viewed as warm up events.

However it would be foolhardy to suggest that they can compare to the four grand slam tournaments.

Also given the naturally climatic nature of tennis, which itself builds to a crescendo at the end of every set and match it would make sense that the calender should do the same.

With the 4 grand slams then ATP tour has four obvious peaks in interest during the year that should be exploited to the maximum.

Why not move the Australian Open to later in the year and have the American hard court swing through January and February?

Others would argue that the lack of a grass court masters event is also an aberration given the stature of Wimbledon.

However given that the majority of tennis players across the globe play on a clay or hard court it is inevitable that the grass court season be short sharp and exciting.

Still for me at least the timing of Indian Wells and Miami has always been rather puzzling.

Brits gear up for 2010

As the 2010 tennis season kicks off there are positive signs for British tennis in 2010.

Elena Baltacha, the British number one and James Ward have both qualified for the main event at Auckland and Channai respectively.

Baltacha, who is currently sitting at a career high ranking of 84 cruised past Canada's Stephanie Dubois 6-3 6-1 and will feel confident going into her first round match against Ioana Raluca.

If she can overcome that hurdle then a possible match up against no.3 seed Yania Wickmayer will certainly show Baltacha how far she has come ahead of the Aussie Open.

Meanwhile the 22 year old Ward defeated two higher ranked players including a convincing win over Israel's Naom Okun at Channai.

However Ward who is beginning to like the best choice for Britain's second Davis cup slot will now face a sterner test against world no.91 Marcel Grannolers.

Grannolers although primarily a doubles specialist is ranked over 170 places above Ward and certainly knows his way around a tennis court.

New Season - New look

Welcome to a revitalised Tennislane!

To co-incide with the launch of the new tennis season tennislane has re-launched with a brand new look.

Over the course of the season we will be following all the major tennis stories across the globe as well as keeping you up to date with Britain's homegrown stars so come back soon!