In every prediction we read for that tournament at Miami, we read Jelena will play her third round vs. Meghannn Shaughnessy. But sometimes things come different as expected and so Jelena will play today vs. Kristina Brandi from Puerto Rico!

Kristina Who????? I must admit i never heared that name before. But Mrs. Brandi has well deserved a few lines here.

She was a player who never really made it to the top for many years and nobody expected her to do so extremely well until last summer. But then the girl from San Juan won 7 (!!!!!!!) ITF tournaments in only 6 months (!!!!!!) and this year is even better!

She reached the Quarterfinals of Auckland and Memphis, the Semifinals of Hobart and upset Conchita Martinez at the Australian Open! Only 2 weeks ago she reached the third round of Indian Wells and lost to Meghannn Shaughnessy in straight sets. But obviously she did not only win more points in three months as in the complete last year, she also won experience as she beat Meghannn yesterday 7-5 4-6 and 7-5!!!!!!! Before that she upset Jelena Kostanic in straight sets and so she will even improve her career high ranking position she has now: Number 48!

48 makes the 1.68 meters tall girl also to the number 1 of her country (ha ha, there are only two professional tennis players from Puerto Rico and the other one - Vilmarie Castellri - is ranked 203) and the number 1 of Central America.

The righthanded player likes writing in her free time and even wrote columns even for CNN and Sportsillustrated. She is 25 years old and turns 26 tomorrow!

Lets hope she doesnt take to much advantage of having 2 won matches under her belt, a lot of convidence and an excellent last tournament. Lets hope Kristina has enough time to celebrate her birthday tomorrow and must not prepare for a Quarterfinal match...

Good luck Jelena and Happy Birthday, Kristina  :)