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Every week on wtatennis.com we'll bring you 10 Things To Know about the week - who's playing, where and more. This fortnight the Road To Singapore travels through sunny Miami...

1) This is the second of two massive back-to-back stops on the Road To Singapore.
Simona Halep collected 1000 points for winning Indian Wells, which propelled her to No.1 on the Road To Singapore, the journey to the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global. There are 1000 points for the Miami winner too - will that push someone else closer to Singapore?

2) This is the closest thing to a home tournament for the Williams sisters.
The Williams sisters live in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, which makes this tournament the closest thing they have to a home tournament on the WTA calendar. And their results speak volumes to that - they have won this title 10 times between them, Venus winning three and Serena winning seven.

3) Serena has more titles at this tournament than at any other tournament.
Serena Williams has won Miami seven times, her most titles at any WTA event. The only other players to win any WTA event seven or more times are Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf.

4) Venus is back in action this fortnight.
Venus Williams didn't play at Indian Wells, but she's one of the hottest players of the year so far, going 15-3 and currently at No.9 on the Road To Singapore leaderboard. And she loves this tournament - she's captured the title here three times, in 1998, 1999 (beating Serena in that final) and 2001.

5) Sharapova is very, very hungry to win here.
Even though she's never won the title, this is one of Maria Sharapova's best tournaments, reaching the final in 2005 (falling to Kim Clijsters), 2006 (falling to Svetlana Kuznetsova), 2011 (falling to Victoria Azarenka), 2012 (falling to Agnieszka Radwanska) and finally 2013 (falling to Serena Williams).

6) Halep has never been past the third round here - that will probably change this year.
Simona Halep could be the hottest player of the year so far - she's the first player to three WTA titles (Shenzhen, Dubai and Indian Wells) and one of only three players to have 20 or more WTA-level match wins (she has 20 - Timea Bacsinszky has 21 and Karolina Pliskova also has 20). She's hoping for her best run here - and she even let this trophy win to make sure she was in top shape for Miami.

7) There will be a lot of eyes on the doubles draw...
Things are heating up in the doubles world right now. Will Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza keep their perfect start going? Will Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci, the co-World No.1s who announced the end of their partnership last week, play with other partners? Stay tuned on wtatennis.com for the latest.

We'll miss you again, Petra.
Petra Kvitova, who missed Indian Wells due to exhaustion, pulled out of Miami due to exhaustion as well. And she's not the only contender who's out this week - there's also Dominika Cibulkova (left ankle injury), Timea Bacsinszky (also left ankle injury) and Jarmila Gajdosova (bacterial infection).

9) The WTA Draw Challenge is back - make your picks here!

10) And finally, find out where you can watch all the tennis on WTA TV developed by Xerox.

Serena Williams is a seven-time champion in Key Biscayne. (AP Photos)

The Miami Open had one distinct advantage on Indian Wells over the last 14 years: the presence of Venus and Serena Williams. This year Serena took some of that edge away, but Miami will still be happy to welcome the Williamses back, Serena’s knee permitting. The upshot is that the women's draw, with Venus joining her sister and most of the Top 20 present and accounted for, is as loaded as ever.

*****
First Quarter

The strained quadriceps muscle that forced Serena to withdraw from Indian Wells is still an issue; she’s being evaluated again in Miami on Tuesday. But as I write this, she was planning to play her opening match on Friday night against Monica Niculescu, the same woman whom she struggled so mightily to defeat in the desert last week. In fact, Serena’s first two matches could be a re-run of Indian Wells: She’s scheduled to face Zarina Diyas again in the third round.

If the knee obliges, or even if it’s a little wobbly, Serena is the favorite to advance out of this section—until she's officially out of the tournament, it's hard to pick against a seven-time champion. But her quarter does hold its share of dangers. The other seeds here are Ana Ivanovic, Sabine Lisicki, Garbine Muguruza, Sara Errani, Angelique Kerber, and Svetlana Kuznetsova. Of those, Ivanovic, Muguruza, Kerber, Lisicki, and Kuzzie all own at least one win over Serena.

Sleeper: Heather Watson

Wild card: CiCi Bellis

Trying to build on Indian Wells: Lisicki

Could use a win or two: Ivanovic
Semifinalist: S. Williams

*****
Second Quarter

Simona Halep, the top seed in this section, has had some trouble following up deep runs in the past, and her final-round win in Indian Wells on Sunday came with a tweak or two to her lower body. But afterward, she sounded ready to try to keep the momentum from that match rolling. Halep may start doing it against a ghost from tennis' past: Wild card Nicole Vaidisova could be her first opponent. Somehow—is this possible?—Vaidisova is still only 25, just two years older than Halep.

Eugenie Bouchard is the top seed on the other side of this quarter. Her first significant event with new coach Sam Sumyk ended in an ugly defeat to Lesia Tsurenko in Indian Wells. Another early loss seems possible here as well. Madison Keys, Belinda Bencic, Lucie Safarova, and last week’s finalist, Jelena Jankovic, are all in Bouchard’s half.

Oh, and I almost missed Victoria Azarenka, who is buried in there near Jankovic. The world still eagerly awaits the first meeting between Sumyk students Azarenka and Bouchard.

Possible second-round matches to watch: Keys vs. Sloane Stephens; Jankovic vs. Azarenka

Wild card of interest: Vaidisova
Semifinalist: Azarenka

*****
Third Quarter

What should we make of Caroline Wozniacki’s season so far? On the one hand, she’s in the Top 5 and coming off a recent (minor) title in Kuala Lumpur. On the other hand, she’s lost early at the two biggest events of the year, the Australian Open and Indian Wells. Now she’s the fourth seed in Miami, where she has never reached the final. Another early loss and it may be time to wonder about her ability to win important matches, rather than just lots of matches. Fulfilling her seeding won’t be easy: She could face Venus Williams in her second match.

Agnieszka Radwanska provides the intrigue on the other side of this quarter. How long before doubts begin to creep in about her partnership with Martina Navratilova? Counting Fed Cup, Radwanska’s record is 7-7 so far in 2015. But with Begu, Cornet, and Suarez Navarro the three seeds in her half, Aga should improve that in Miami; she won the title here in 2012, after all.
Semifinalist: V. Williams

*****
Fourth Quarter

Like Rafael Nadal on the men's side, Maria Sharapova, a sometime Florida resident, has never won here; she's a five-time runner-up. This year she comes in after a bad loss to Flavia Pennetta in Indian Wells, but with a solid season of work already behind her. The Aussie Open runner-up should also like what she sees in her draw. Ekaterina Makarova is the second seed in this quarter, and Karolina Pliskova is slated to be Maria’s fourth-round opponent—Pliskova has been good so far in 2015, but is she ready-to-upset-Sharapova-in-Key-Biscyane good? That would be a major statement.

Also here: Caroline Garcia; the ever-slowly-improving Frenchwoman could play Sharapova in the third round.
Semifinalist: Sharapova

*****

Daria Gavrilova, who only just broke the Top 100 for the first time three days ago and who had never beaten anyone ranked higher than No.35 beforehand, pulled off an absolute stunner at the Miami Open on Thursday, edging Maria Sharapova for the biggest win of her career.

Watch highlights, interviews and more video from Miami right here on wtatennis.com!

Gavrilova, a No.97-ranked wildcard, gave the No.2-seeded Sharapova all kinds of trouble from the beginning, her impressive athleticism and shot variety producing winner after winner and drawing error after error from the Russian megastar - soon enough she led 5-3 in the first set, and after dropping three games in a row from there, she closed out the lengthy 68-minute first set in a tie-break, 7-4.

She stormed out to a 3-0 lead in the second set and never really looked back, allowing Sharapova two games in a row to cut a 4-1 lead down to 4-3 but then promptly closing the match out, 7-6(4), 6-3.

"She runs a lot of balls down," Sharapova said. "I was committing a lot of errors off of those balls and not really staying patient, and maybe going for too many winners but not moving forward enough.

"Of course it's a bit of a surprise. It's the first round. I'm expected to win. But that's why we play the matches - you still have to go out and win it, no matter if you're the favorite. Today I didn't."

Gavrilova showed signs of greatness early on in her career, reaching No.1 in the juniors, but her progress in the seniors was stalled when she tore her ACL at the end of 2013 - she missed the first half of the 2014 season and has been working her way up mainly in ITF Circuit events and WTA qualies.

"I still can't realize that it's my dream - I have been dreaming about beating Maria since I was probably 12, when I saw her win Wimbledon, when she beat Serena," Gavrilova said afterwards. "I was like, 'Oh, I really want to play her and beat her.' I've probably been visualizing beating her since I was 12.

"I played Angelique Kerber twice this year and Simona Halep just two weeks ago, and I was pretty close all this time. So I just thought, 'Okay, you can do it. You're probably at this level right now.'"

The other favorites in action all won in straight sets, with No.4 seed Caroline Wozniacki reeling off the first nine games en route to a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Madison Brengle, No.7 seed Agnieszka Radwanska battling past Anna Schmiedlova in a tight two-setter, 6-4, 7-5, No.8 seed Ekaterina Makarova beating Karin Knapp, 6-1, 6-3, and No.9 seed Andrea Petkovic cruising past Christina McHale, 6-2, 6-2.

The only other upsets came among the lower seeds, with No.19 seed Barbora Zahlavova Strycova falling to Kristina Mladenovic, 7-5, 6-2, No.25 seed Caroline Garcia losing an all-WTA Rising Star battle with Kurumi Nara, 6-3, 7-6(9), and Kaia Kanepi beating No.28 seed Varvara Lepchenko, 6-2, 6-4.