What happens when a tennis court appears inside a football stadium?<\/p>\n
One figure stole the show in the first week of the Miami Open, attracting more attention than rising stars Alex Eala and Joao Fonseca, or world No. 1\u2019s Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka.<\/p>\n
Persistent rain in Miami reminded fans and players alike of the pitfalls of staging a tennis tournament at a venue designed for football, and prompting questions about what a modern tennis site should look like.<\/p>\n
Sunday\u2019s qualifying round was a complete washout, as was Wednesday\u2019s first round, when 37 matches across 10 courts were canceled thanks to a constant, light drizzle.<\/p>\n
Play was stop-and-start on Friday, with intermittent rain delaying several matches and requiring some creative scheduling, including bumping Sabalenka, the defending champion, from Stadium Court to the venue\u2019s third-biggest court for her against American Ann Li.<\/p>\n
Alcaraz and Fonseca instead opened the night session on the biggest court \u2014 temporarily constructed inside Hard Rock Stadium, the home of the NFL\u2019s Miami Dolphins.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was actually shocked that they were considering canceling my match, or giving me a couple of options of the stadiums. And I was like, \u2018But what\u2019s the problem for Alcaraz and Fonseca to start later?\u2019\u201d Sabalenka said in a news conference after she defeated Li 7-6(5), 6-4.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I\u2019ve never dealt with something like that. \u2026 I don\u2019t remember anything like that. I just thought, like it\u2019s not a big problem for me to play. And then for the night session to wait and start a little bit later.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I guess that\u2019s what the tournament, tickets \u2014 that\u2019s what was better for the tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whoever had been picked in Sabalenka\u2019s slot that day would have faced an awkward wait and the prospect of being moved. But all the rain and schedule-shifting prompted renewed discussion about roofs at big tournaments, as climate change leads weather patterns to become increasingly unpredictable (rainy season typically doesn\u2019t start in South Florida until summer).<\/p>\n
None of the four combined WTA\/ATP 1000 tournaments in North America have covered stadiums. But the Miami Open is uniquely situated.<\/p>\n
The tournament was played at Miami\u2019s Crandon Park on Key Biscayne from 1987 until 2019, when the owner of the Miami Dolphins, Stephen Ross, struck a 30-year deal with IMG to move the event 20 miles northwest to the Dolphins\u2019 Hard Rock Stadium.<\/p>\n
The stadium was renovated in 2016 for some $500 million, after which an additional $70 million was spent on turning the stadium into a state-of-the-art tennis venue.<\/p>\n
Outer courts that wrap around the stadium were constructed as permanent fixtures, but Stadium Court is a flashy novelty, a temporary structure erected each year smack in the middle of a football field. It has less drainage than a purpose-built court, and the venue proved difficult to dry off during Wednesday\u2019s rain.<\/p>\n
Only a partial overhang exists on the stadium, in part so the Dolphins could preserve the tropical, open-air feel of the venue.<\/p>\n
This has led to some nostalgic yearning from tennis fans for Key Biscayne, but that venue had its own problems, not least the single road to and from the site that caused significant traffic problems.<\/p>\n
Forgoing a roof is also not an uncommon decision for NFL franchises trying to maintain the character of their original stadiums \u2014 the Buffalo Bills, owned by world No. 5 Jessica Pegula\u2019s parents, are constructing a $2 billion stadium in snowy upstate New York that won\u2019t have a roof, either.<\/p>\n
During last week\u2019s bouts of unseasonable weather, the exposed Stadium Court was a reminder of exactly what the venue was \u2014 and wasn\u2019t \u2014 built for.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Ava Wallace<\/p>\n
A first Miami week of intriguing results?<\/p>\n
The Sunshine Double of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, Calif. and the Miami Open is one of the most-loved sequences on the tours, but it can also throw up some intriguing results.<\/p>\n
Both tournaments are 12 days, which creates significant deficits in rest and acclimatization between players who lose early at Indian Wells and those who go deep, while the Miami Open\u2019s historical connections to sports marketing behemoth IMG have seen promising players given wild cards. The shift in conditions also gives qualifiers a leg-up over players who arrive later in Florida from California, as they get three matches to adapt to the slicker, lower-bouncing courts.<\/p>\n
On the men\u2019s side, five teenagers made it to the second round of an ATP Masters 1000 for the first time in 19 years. 18-year-old American lefty Darwin Blanch secured his second tour win, over Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany, while Japan\u2019s Rei Sakamoto, 19, secured his first, over Aleksandar Kovacevic. Jo\u00e3o Fonseca (19), 17-year-old Mo\u00efse Kouam\u00e9 and Spain\u2019s Rafael Jodar (19) joined Blanch and Sakamoto in the second round: Jodar made the third, before losing to Tom\u00e1s Mart\u00edn Etcheverry, while Sakamoto ground out a set against Indian Wells runner-up Daniil Medvedev before losing in three.<\/p>\n
![\"Rei](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Rei-Sakamoto-Miami-Open-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Rei Sakamoto\u2019s first ATP Tour win also came with a perfectly aligned photo. (Al Bello \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
It was 20-year-old qualifier Martin Landaluce, though, who made the biggest impression \u2014 knocking out No. 14 seed Karen Khachanov in the third round to set up a meeting Sebastian Korda, who upset world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz.<\/p>\n
In the women\u2019s draw, Hailey Baptiste of the U.S. defeated the player with the most wins on the entire circuit in 2026, upsetting the resurgent Elina Svitolina in straight sets. Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen made the biggest statement of her comeback from an elbow injury to date, by beating Madison Keys in three sets, while Jelena Ostapenko overcame Jasmine Paolini and a partisan crowd in a seesawing encounter that saw her go from 4-0 up, to 5-5, to a 7-5 win in the deciding set.<\/p>\n
Most impressively of all, Talia Gibson, the Australian who reached the Indian Wells quarterfinals, showed no signs of slowing down her sunshine surge. Gibson beat four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka and then rising teenager Iva Jovi\u0107 to reach the fourth round in Miami, playing the free-swinging, aggressive tennis that served her so well in the Coachella Valley the previous fortnight. She meets Australian Open champion and Indian Wells finalist Elena Rybakina in the round of 16.<\/p>\n
\u2014 James Hansen<\/p>\n
How to play against an idol?<\/p>\n
With such a successful and long-lasting career, Venus Williams<\/a> is always likely to face players who idolized her growing up. With other players like her sister, Serena<\/a>, and the Big Three of Roger Federer<\/a>, Rafael Nadal<\/a> and Novak Djokovic<\/a>, having enjoyed similarly lengthy and storied careers, player-meets-idol-and-has-to-beat-them has become a common dynamic in tennis.<\/p>\n But there was still something particularly poignant about Francesca Jones\u2019 win against Venus Thursday in the Miami Open first round.<\/p>\n Jones, the world No. 93 from Great Britain, was born with Ectrodactyly Ectodermal Dysplasia (EEC). Jones has three fingers and a thumb on each hand, three toes on her right foot and four toes on her left.<\/p>\n Doctors told her she would never play tennis professionally, but Jones said it was players like the Williams sisters that kept her going. And after beating Venus 7-5, 7-5 for her first win in more than two months, Jones embraced her opponent at the net and told her how much of an inspiration she had been.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s a game-changer. I told her at the net I pretty much say goodnight to her and Serena on the wall of my childhood home every night,\u201d Jones said in her on-court interview.<\/p>\n \u201cI was someone that was told I could never play tennis and if it wasn\u2019t for those two women I\u2019m not sure I would have made the step to do it.<\/p>\n \u201cMy dad took me to Centre Court (at Wimbledon) to watch them play at five years old, and they\u2019re the reason I\u2019m here today. So to have that win means everything.\u201d<\/p>\n Great moment at the net between Fran Jones and Venus Williams. pic.twitter.com\/zGcIOWmXyd<\/a><\/p>\n