Why the Miami Open’s tennis court on Hard Rock Stadium’s football field has a rain problem

Welcome back to the Monday Tennis Briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories from the past week on court.

This week, the Miami Open took center stage. Building a tennis court on a football stadium caused some issues, the tennis idol phenomenon showed no signs of stopping, and there were some very strange controversies.

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What happens when a tennis court appears inside a football stadium?

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’s Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka.

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.

Sunday’s qualifying round was a complete washout, as was Wednesday’s first round, when 37 matches across 10 courts were canceled thanks to a constant, light drizzle.

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’s third-biggest court for her against American Ann Li.

Alcaraz and Fonseca instead opened the night session on the biggest court — temporarily constructed inside Hard Rock Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins.

“I was actually shocked that they were considering canceling my match, or giving me a couple of options of the stadiums. And I was like, ‘But what’s the problem for Alcaraz and Fonseca to start later?’” Sabalenka said in a news conference after she defeated Li 7-6(5), 6-4.

“I think I’ve never dealt with something like that. … I don’t remember anything like that. I just thought, like it’s not a big problem for me to play. And then for the night session to wait and start a little bit later.”

“But I guess that’s what the tournament, tickets — that’s what was better for the tournament.”

Whoever had been picked in Sabalenka’s 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’t start in South Florida until summer).

None of the four combined WTA/ATP 1000 tournaments in North America have covered stadiums. But the Miami Open is uniquely situated.

The tournament was played at Miami’s 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’ Hard Rock Stadium.

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.

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’s rain.

Only a partial overhang exists on the stadium, in part so the Dolphins could preserve the tropical, open-air feel of the venue.

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.

Forgoing a roof is also not an uncommon decision for NFL franchises trying to maintain the character of their original stadiums — the Buffalo Bills, owned by world No. 5 Jessica Pegula’s parents, are constructing a $2 billion stadium in snowy upstate New York that won’t have a roof, either.

During last week’s bouts of unseasonable weather, the exposed Stadium Court was a reminder of exactly what the venue was — and wasn’t — built for.

— Ava Wallace

A first Miami week of intriguing results?

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.

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’s 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.

On the men’s 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’s Rei Sakamoto, 19, secured his first, over Aleksandar Kovacevic. João Fonseca (19), 17-year-old Moïse Kouamé and Spain’s Rafael Jodar (19) joined Blanch and Sakamoto in the second round: Jodar made the third, before losing to Tomás Martín Etcheverry, while Sakamoto ground out a set against Indian Wells runner-up Daniil Medvedev before losing in three.

It was 20-year-old qualifier Martin Landaluce, though, who made the biggest impression — 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.

In the women’s 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.

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 Jović 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.

— James Hansen

How to play against an idol?

With such a successful and long-lasting career, Venus Williams is always likely to face players who idolized her growing up. With other players like her sister, Serena, and the Big Three of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, having enjoyed similarly lengthy and storied careers, player-meets-idol-and-has-to-beat-them has become a common dynamic in tennis.

But there was still something particularly poignant about Francesca Jones’ win against Venus Thursday in the Miami Open first round.

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.

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.

“She’s 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,” Jones said in her on-court interview.

“I was someone that was told I could never play tennis and if it wasn’t for those two women I’m not sure I would have made the step to do it.

“My dad took me to Centre Court (at Wimbledon) to watch them play at five years old, and they’re the reason I’m here today. So to have that win means everything.”

Great moment at the net between Fran Jones and Venus Williams. pic.twitter.com/zGcIOWmXyd

— José Morgado (@josemorgado) March 19, 2026

Jones’ win was especially emotional because she had candidly spoken about her physical and mental challenges at this year’s Australian Open, having been forced to retire injured mid-match for the second straight tournament after an early stumble against Polish qualifier Linda Klimovičová. Jones was in tears as she received treatment and left the court.

“I don’t relate any of the retirements and things directly to what could be referred to as ‘kid with a syndrome,’” she said in a news conference afterwards. “(But) I don’t think I had a team in place and the expertise that I needed from a younger age.

“I was never a natural athlete, and I’m not looking for that to be the case, but I do believe that there’s still a long way to go.”

— Charlie Eccleshare

📅 Coming up

🎾 ATP 

📍Miami: Miami Open (1,000) featuring Jannik Sinner, Sebastian Korda, Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev.

📺 UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel 💻 Tennis TV

🎾 WTA

📍Miami: Miami Open (1,000) featuring Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff, Zheng Qinwen, Talia Gibson.

📺 UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel

Tell us what you noticed this week in the comments below as the men’s and women’s tours continue.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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