The New Miami Open:
UPDATE
John Yandell
So from a distance, driving in from the airport, the Hard Rock Stadium looks like a gigantic orange four-masted sailing ship. And it looked great from the balcony of my hotel room the night I arrived as well.
And the whole facility looked amazing the next morning when I got on site. It's at the Hard Rock stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins. The amount of work involved to create the tennis facility there must have been phenomenal.
In the main stadium basically they used one sideline of the Dolphins football seats and then built a gigantic U around the other three sides. The football field is under there somewhere.
The rest of the facility is laid out in front of the main stadium entrance. There is a large concourse that faces a gigantic high def video screen on the side of the stadium. And I mean gigantic. I sat and watched Federer's 3-set first round win and felt no need to actually go inside.
There are 4 more of those giant screens inside the stadium as well. The stadium with all the empty surrounding football seats does look a little strange, but only if that is what you focus on. The court set up itself is great.
The concourse itself is lined with food and beverage places. Great coffee place with delicious flat whites.
No real grass like Indian Wells - all brand new astro turf, but tons of trees and flowers. And I can report large amounts of margaritas, champagne and especially Stella Artois were being consumed from the moment the gates opened.
Walking down to the end of the concourse you run into the Grandstand and the paths to the rest of the courts. Turn left for the other match courts. Turn right for the practice courts, all of which have viewing stands.
The walkways are all poured, textured concrete and pavers. And again a lot of landscaping. This is a vast, vast upgrade from Key Biscayne with its black asphalt, ultra haphazard court layout, and limited to zero practice court seating. Sometimes you had to watch players practice from one or two courts over.
Basically the fan base seems to have followed the tournament up the highway from Miami. You hear way more Spanish than English and Italian is common too. The fans more than followed, actually, because the new place is smashing Key Biscayne attendance numbers. According the New York Times, Miami is the Latin Slam because travelers come in from all over Central and South America.
The pre-event press releases made a big deal about the fan experience, including the art galleries. Walked through those and there was nothing I want on my wall, but some interesting stuff. My favorite was by an artist called Mr. Brainstorm of Albert Einstein holding up a peace placard.
According to the event people, almost all of the new facility is permanent - except for the center court in the stadium which obviously has to come out for football season. On the concourse only the astro turf and one row of practice courts are coming out after the event.
And for the parking. Wow. At Indian Wells you have long lines to get into the lots and then have a 15 minute hike to the facility. Media parking here is right next to the stadium. And there is massive, easy fan parking too.
That makes sense since it's set up for the Dolphins to accommodate 65,000 fans. Most of that parking is just sitting empty.
Contrast to the Key Biscayne situation where it could take an hour to get over the causeway to the island and although there was shuttle transportation from the parking, it was sporadic, and usually a long walk was faster.
The actual town is Miami Gardens and it's very different from Key Biscayne as well. Key Biscayne is marinas and beaches. Miami Gardens is low income and probably somewhat dangerous. Out of curiosity I was driving around. A lot of small, not always well kept houses with bars on the windows.
Unlike Indian Wells, this is not a community of high end vacation houses, hotels, and restaurants - to say the least. In fact a 20 minute Lyft ride to find a good steak place. Most of the travelers must be staying in Miami which is a half hour down the Interstate.
But, interestingly, about a 5 minute drive from the stadium, standing out there alone, surrounded by water and tropical trees and grasses, is the Stadium Hotel. I stayed there and it made life highly convenient. This isn't the Grand Hyatt or LaQuinta for sure, but it's perfectly comfortable and the price is right.
Highly recommended unless you have a deep need for luxury. Not to mention it has a pool and a miniature golf course.
The Tennis?
As for the tennis, I watched Hubert Hurkacz take out Dominic Thiem in straight sets in the first round. Hurkacz lost in the quarters at IW to Fed and is near the top 50. Thiem got an early break but couldn't hold on and after that Hurkacz basically out played him handling Thiem's nasty kick serve.
Denis Shapovalov looked great in beating Dan Evans in 3 after losing the first. As I have said before, Denis has a complete game. Big serve. Huge off both wings, including that gorgeous one-hander. And coming to the net repeatedly at key times. He is probably still too young at 19 but hard to believe he won't win a Slam.
And speaking of possible future Slam winners Stefano Tsitsipas is another great young one-hander with incredible intensity. I watched him bulldoze Mackenzie McDonald 6-1 in the second after a tight tie- breaker first.
The Internal One-Hander
One technical observation. The two-handed backhand advocates are often virulent about the inferiority and impending death of the one-hander. In Miami watching Thiem, Tsitsipas and Shapovalov it's hard to believe they are right and in fact I am sure they are wrong.
In addition to those guys there are probably only 3 other young players likely to break through and win a Slam. Zverev, Coric, and maybe Krygios.
Coric is the least probable. Or maybe that's Krygios since its hard or impossible to believe he could ever string 7 matches together. Watched him lose in 3 to Coric after winning the first. Meanwhile the two-handed guy everyone says is next, especially after adding Ivan Lendl to his team, Zverev, lost in 3 to David Ferrer.
But what about Felix? He is even younger at 18 but had a breakthrough tournament in Miami to get into the top 50. There is a two-hander to watch for the future. He actually had a winning record against Shapovalov in the juniors.
But still I think three of the four most likely to break through first are one handers. Maybe Thiem will do it at the French especially if Nadal is still injured or not 100%. And going on about the one-handers, my favorite match was between the other two with Shapovalov beating Tsitsipas breaker in the third after losing the first. It was set to go on mid-evening on the Grandstand. That is until an hour of total down pour. It started after midnight!
I weakened and went back and watched it at the hotel. But the stands were more than half full.
So I guess the fans really do love the new Miami. And I say ditto. My recommendation is to put it on your list.
