LIVE From the 2023 Miami Open--It's Best Tennis Substack

Boiling in the bleachers at the Master's 1000 ATP-WTA tournament

For more than 30 years, the Miami Open, formerly known as the Sony Ericsson Open, the NASDAQ-100 Open, and the Lipton Championships, was played at the Crandon Park Tennis Center on Key Biscayne, a tiny paradisal island that frames one of the city’s wealthiest zip codes with free beaches and two lush state parks. As far as March in the contiguous United States is concerned, it’s tough to conceive of a better site for outdoor tennis. On Biscayne, the bay and ocean breezes are gentle, near-constant, and sometimes interwoven; the shade, on hotter days, is never too faraway. A match there was once interrupted by a large, curious iguana, who darted across the court like a streaker. Visiting can feel like slipping out of time in the best way, your everyday self abandoned, a shadow left holding the burden of all responsibility and stress, its arms growing heavy as it awaits your delayed return at the tollbooth just before the bridge.

Since 2019, in contrast, the Miami Open has taken place in a sweltering parking lot that isn’t in Miami, more specifically the parking lot of a football stadium whose naming rights are presently owned by a chain of casinos. (One former owner: Jimmy Buffet’s Landshark Lager.) Representing, along with the previous week’s Indian Wells Master’s, one half of the sport’s annual “Sunshine Double,” this version of the Miami Open distinguishes itself from past iterations by offering no breeze, little shade, and an equal chance of suffering heatstroke to players and fans alike. This year, a Grounds Pass for the Day Session of the Men’s Second Round and the Women’s Third Round costs $40, before fees. Parking is $40, too. I bought a ticket, got dropped off, and was picked up eight hours later looking like a desert wanderer, dehydrated and sunburned to the bone. On the way home, I daydreamed of the tennis center on Biscayne, all the courts now public, a not-quite ruin maintained by a skeleton crew of groundskeepers and presided over by uncountable iguanas as big as dogs. I could almost feel a breeze. Here are some of the things I saw at the tennis tournament in the parking lot.

11:00 AM - Grandstand Court - Andrey Rublev (RUS) v JJ Wolf (USA)

Recently, the Russian player Andrey Rublev announced the launch of Rublo, a line of personal anti-war tennis apparel, with an Instagram post that began, “Here is a doze of migraine to your heads.” His game is no less headache-inducing, nothing but awesome weapons and confounding weaknesses with nothing in-between. Rublev may have the best forehand on the tour, but it comes paired with an iffy backhand, pea-brained point construction, and a second serve his opponents might as well smack off of a little league tee. No one seems more aware of these deficiencies than Rublev, who has drawn blood abusing himself and his racket in the past. Today, his only meltdown comes during the closing game of the second set against JJ Wolf, an up-and-coming former NCAA standout. As Rublev wrote in his Instagram post, “I know Im depressive and always have been thinking about life and death for too much, but before my days will end I will keep fighting for what I believe, what I love and who I love.”

Rublev wins (7-6, 6-4)

12:30 PM - Butch Buchholz Court - Jannik Sinner (ITA) v Laszlo Djere (SER)

After I’m unable to find any Rublo gear to purchase in the pro shop, I watch Jannik Sinner, the ginger-haired Gucci ambassador, summarily dispose of Laszlo Djere, the world #58 from Serbia. Sinner, as every living television commentator must reiterate, was a skiing prodigy before he was a tennis prodigy. The competitive advantage of his background and black diamond muscle memory is evident on the court, where Sinner’s movement and footwork enable him to strike every ball plum on his racket’s sweet spot with ideal force, direction, and timing. Nearby, I see a grown man wearing a custom Jannik Sinner collage tank top, and I cannot judge him for it. (Photo below.)

Sinner wins (6-4, 6-2)

1:15 PM - Grandstand Court - Ons Jabeur (TUN) v Varvara Gracheva (RUS)

When I return to the Grandstand Court, Ons Jabeur, a finalist at Wimbledon and the US Open last year, is buried in wet towels and ice packs, either injured or overheating or both. Jabeur has the most varied games on the women’s side, a Swiss Army knife of drop shot returns and disguised inside-out forehands, but these are difficult shots to pull off in the midst of heat-induced ego death. She falls, after a handful of dazzling doomed-comeback points, to Varvara Gracheva, who’s ranked outside the top 50. Probably the biggest win of Gracheva’s career.

Gracheva wins (6-2, 6-2)

2:30 PM - Court 5 - Wu Yibeng (CHN) v Diego Schwartzman (ARG)

More than 80% of the population of Miami-Dade County comprises passive income Argentines and Chinese fashion influencers, which makes for a raucous atmosphere at this match. Wu, after becoming the first Chinese-born man to win an ATP tournament earlier in 2023, pushes Schwartzman to a first set tiebreaker, but folds after losing it close on some mishits. “Ole, ole, ole, ole,” the Argentine crowd chanted. “Dee-yay-go, dee-yay-go.”

Schwartzman wins (7-6, 6-1)

3:15 PM - Court 7 - Miomir Kecmanovic (SER) v Ugo Humbert (FRA)

The dark horse best match of 2022 was the Miami Open semifinal between Miomir Kecmanovic and Carlos Alcaraz, the most talented tennis player in a generation. I have a pet theory that, had Kecamanovic won that match, he would have gone on to accomplish what Alcaraz did. Instead, Kecmanovic has hovered around #30 in the world, while Alcaraz has established himself as the de facto future of the sport (and one of the faces of Calvin Klein underwear). For a moment, though, it seemed as if all that glory could have belonged to Kecmanovic. Here, he almost loses to the error-prone Ugo Humbert, of France. (Rublev will dispose of Kecmanovic easily in the next round, sending the Serb further down the rankings. You begin to wonder if a name like Miomir Kecmanovic, no matter the talent, just isn’t meant for the billboard lights.)

Kecmanovic wins (6-4, 6-7, 7-6)

5:00 PM - Stadium Court - Carlos Alcaraz (ESP) v Facundo Bagnis (ARG)

For a solid half hour, I watch the two top-ranked women at the Miami Open, Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina, abuse their coaches and hitting partners on the practice courts. On stadium court, Alcaraz treats Facundo Bandis much the same. The match is so lopsided that, when Bagnis manages to win a game in the second set, roughly half of the 20,000 people in attendance stand and applaud. Bagnis, in celebration, tosses his racket in the air but fails to catch it. Given how long the rest of the match takes, Bagnis may as well have left his racket on the ground.

Alcaraz wins (6-0, 6-2)