The New Miami Open
John Yandell
It's still the Miami Open with all the same men's and women's players—but a totally new facility in a new location. I've been going to Key Biscayne for the tournament and other tennis related stuff for 20 years or more.
But when it comes to the new Miami Open, from everything I can tell, no one is going to miss Key Biscayne. The traffic was nightmarish and the political fights had made it impossible to upgrade the facility. While still a major event when it came to the tennis, Miami had been surpassed for years by Indian Wells as the next most important event after the Slams—especially in terms of the facility.
So where is the Miami Open going? To the Hard Rock Stadium, where the Miami Dolphins play football. You guessed it on Don Shula Drive. But it's not technically in Miami, it's in Miami Gardens. That's about 22 miles north of Key Biscayne basically a straight shot up Interstate 95.
Can't wait to see it in person. From everything I can tell from the web, the new facility is fantastic—possibly it could be better than Indian Wells in some ways.
The tournament is still owned by IMG, but IMG has partnered with Dolphins owner Stephen Ross with the goal "to build a permanent world-class tennis facility."
The stadium seats about 14,000, but also includes a huge shade canopy and a "luxury seating experience unlike anything in tennis." Wonder what that means exactly, but it sounds pretty good.
In addition to the stadium the "tennis campus," as the event describes it, includes 29 permanent courts. This includes what looks like a major grandstand court.
18 of these new courts are designated for practice. Looking at the renderings, the practice courts have baseline seating on both ends.
That's a huge improvement from Key Biscayne where you could often only watch practice standing on one sideline and some of the practice courts had no direct viewing spot at all.
Supposedly the parking will be "expedited" and directly adjacent to the tennis complex. If you ever have taken the tortuous drive over the causeway to Key Biscayne and then made the 15 minute hike in from the parking lots you gotta like the sound of that as well.
The rest of grounds are described as a "spectator oasis," with high level food, the tennis world's largest video board, plus local art and entertainment--presumably live music.
The PR line is "an elevated fan experience incorporating a unique Miami look and feel." I am ready to like that.
One of the best parts of this event has always been the diversity of the fans—age wise, ethnicity wise, and language wise. I am going to assume that isn't going to change.
As for the tennis itself. The qualies start on March 18. Women's first round matches start on the 19 with the men starting the next day on the 20th. It' ends on March 31st with the men's final. That's 14 days!
As of now, every player in the top 20 on both the men's and women's side is entered. Novak Djokovic has won this event an amazing 6 times. Roger Federer has won it 3 times. Interestingly Rafa Nadal never has. Andy Murray won it twice. John Isner won last year.
If he plays the way he did in Australia you would think Novak would win here. But making assumptions about favorites has a way of backfiring.
Remember Indian Wells precedes Miami. Novak won that 5 times. Interestingly he won both Indian Wells and Miami in the same year three times, 2014, 2015, and 2016. Could he win both one more time? That's a lot of tennis balls to hit in a one month span. Kind of exhausting to contemplate right?
Eventually someone in the Next Gen or maybe the next, Next Gen is going to win Miami. Would that be by beating Novak in a final? Or what if Novak is upset? And Roger and Rafa are also knocked out?
What if two Next Geners make the final? I would love to see that! Hard to handicap right? Alexander Zverev is the obvious choice, but what if turned out to be Stefano Tsitsipas? Or Dominic Thiem?
Or someone from Next Gen who is a longer shot? Denis Shapovalov? Francis Tiafoe? Or an established player like Marin Cilic, or Kevin Anderson, or even Delpo—he won Indian Wells last year.
And how about the women? Serena has won Miami more times than Novak—an amazing 8 times. Is she going to resurrect her best tennis one more time? She's done it before when some counted her done.
Sloane Stephens is the defending champion. You'd have to say Naomi Osaka is the favorite on paper, but is she really ready to be that dominant?
An unknown in all this is the court surface. Faster hardcourts? Slower hardcourts? No way to find out if the surface is a factor til the matches start.
I was at the U.S. Open when they inaugurated Arthur Ashe in 1997. That was a whole new world. And the new Miami Open is a new world too. Let's see what happens. I can't wait.
