• DAY 2 PREVIEW: There are 16 first round singles matches in the top half of the Miami Open presented by Itau draw on Thursday’s schedule. Six of the 11 #NextGenATP players in the tournament are in action, leading off with 20-year-old Croat Borna Coric against Spaniard Marcel Granollers in the first men’s match on Stadium. In the next match on, #NextGenATP qualifier Frances Tiafoe plays Konstantin Kravchuk for the second straight week. Tiafoe defeated the Russian 61 64 in the 1R at the Irving, Texas Challenger last week. The 19-year-old Tiafoe was one of five Americans to qualify into the tournament. Kravchuk is looking for his first ATP World Tour match win of the season (0-6). In the evening session, Brazilian wild card Thomaz Bellucci takes on Stephane Robert of France.

On Grandstand, former World No. 5 Tommy Robredo takes on the top player from Georgia, Nikoloz Basilashvili, who is off to a career-best 10-6 start, highlighted by a runner-up in Memphis and SF in Sofia. In the next match on, 20-year-old #NextGenATP star Karen Khachanov plays Diego Schwartzman of Argentina for the first time. Khachanov is the top Russian in the Emirates ATP Rankings at No. 52. Last month he broke the Top 50. In the next men’s match on, Aussie Bernard Tomic looks to break a five-match losing streak against qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan. In the evening match, Alexandr Dolgopolov, who captured his third career ATP World Tour title in Buenos Aires last month (d. No. 5 Nishikori), plays Malek Jaziri of Tunisia. Jaziri is coming off a career-best ATP Masters 1000 4R result in Indian Wells.

• #NEXTGENATP STARS: There are 11 #NextGenATP players in the main draw, including six teenagers. On Wednesday, #NextGenATP players went 3-1 in 1R play. Here’s a look at the talented 21 & under group listed in ranking order:

Main Draw Rank Age Round
Alexander Zverev No. 20 19 vs. Ruud-Lu winner in 2R
Karen Khachanov No. 52 20 vs. Schwartzman in 1R
Borna Coric No. 62 20 vs. Granollers in 1R
Hyeon Chung No. 92 20 vs. Dzumhur in 1R
Jared Donaldson (Q) No. 95 20 d. Edmund in 1R, vs. M. Zverev in 2R
Frances Tiafoe (Q) No. 101 19 vs. Kravchuk in 1R
Ernesto Escobedo (Q) No. 108 20 d. Evans in 1R, vs Verdasco in 2R
Taylor Fritz No. 126 19 d. Pavlasek in 1R, vs. Kohlschreiber in 2R
Casper Ruud (WC) No. 128 18 vs. Lu in 1R
Andrey Rublev (WC) No. 130 19 vs. F. Mayer in 1R
Michael Mmoh (WC) No. 179 19 l. to Mahut in 1R

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A trio of #NextGenATP Americans celebrated their first wins at the Miami Open presented by Itau on Wednesday. Taylor Fritz beat Czech Adam Pavlasek 6-2, 6-3 on Stadium Court. Fritz lost only three points on his first serve (17/20) in the 67-minute opener.

The 19-year-old right-hander will face 26^th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber in the second round. Fritz, the 2016 ATP Star Of Tomorrow presented by Emirates, will try to build off his third-round showing last week at the BNP Paribas Open, during which he earned his first Top 10 win against then-No. 7 Marin Cilic in the second round.

Twenty-year-old Jared Donaldson came back to erase three match points and advance past Brit Kyle Edmund 2-6, 7-6(4), 6-2 in two hours and 23 minutes. Donaldson was serving 0/40, 4-5 in the second set but won three consecutive points and eventually took the set to even the match.

In the decider, Donaldson cruised, breaking the 22-year-old Edmund twice and never facing a break point. The win marks Donaldson’s third in as many days after he qualified for the Masters 1000 tournament. The Rhode Island native will next meet 28^th seed Mischa Zverev of Germany.

Fellow qualifier Ernesto Escobedo also weathered a three-set contest to beat World No. 43 Daniel Evans 7-5, 0-6, 6-3. Escobedo saved both break points faced in the third set and will face 25^th seed Fernando Verdasco in the second round.

In other action, South African Kevin Anderson set-up a second-round contest with No. 2 seed Kei Nishikori after beating Serbian qualifier Dusan Lajovic 6-2, 7-5. Nishikori leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 2-1, but Anderson won their last meeting, at the 2015 Shanghai Rolex Masters.

Tommy Haas continued his comeback tour but came up just short. The 38-year-old Haas lost to Czech Jiri Vesely 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-5 in two hours and 36 minutes. Haas falls to 0-3 on the year, after retiring from his first-round match at the Australian Open and losing in the first round of the Delray Beach Open.

“The mindset obviously was to go out there, compete as hard as I can, and try to win the match, just like every other time, and I came close. It’s one of those matches, again, this is only my third match of the year, so the year has been very different for me from a professional athlete point of view,” Haas said. “It’s frustrating to lose those kinds of matches. I would love to get over the hump. At the same time, everyone is out there to compete, and it came down to a few points here and there.”

You’ve probably seen mosquitoes swarm players or moths hop on the court at night. But a giant iguana sitting on a scoreboard and refusing to budge during an ATP World Tour match?

Miami Open fans probably couldn’t believe what they were seeing on Wednesday evening as Tommy Haas and Jiri Vesely battled on Court 1 at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament. The score was tied 3-3 in the third set, with Haas set to serve during the first-round match, when an iguana climbed to the top of a baseline scoreboard and rested at the best seat in the stadium.

Fans, players and the chair umpire immediately noticed the iguana as the creature lingered. “It’s a big one,” the umpire said.

Officials tried to shoo the reptile away with a towel, but the iguana had worked hard for that spot and wasn’t about to saunter away at the first time of asking.

There was tennis to be played, however, so the chair umpire told Vesely that they were going to resume play, even with the iguana sitting on the scoreboard. “If it’s not moving and it’s just like that, we’re going to try and play,” he said. 

But Vesely, who was set to return Haas’ serve from the iguana’s side of the court, refused. “I cannot concentrate,” Vesely said.

“It’s not a dangerous animal,” the umpire pleaded.

But Vesely, like the iguana, wasn’t budging, and it was clear: This match was on the iguana’s time.

Haas, like the fans who were laughing and cheering, had fun with the creature. The ATP World Tour veteran walked over to the lizard and snapped a selfie with him to more cheers from the crowd.

“Maybe the iguana got the note that this is most likely the last time I’m playing here, and he wanted to say ‘Hi’ and take a peek or something,” said the 38-year-old Haas, who has said this season will be his last. “I don’t know, but it was pretty cool. Of that size, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced that. I don’t know where he came from and why he wanted to come out on Court 1 and kind of say hello to everyone.”

Haas, who is in his 21^st year on tour, has had a career full of memorable moments, but he’ll likely remember the day the iguana interrupted his match. “It was fun. I thought that’s an interesting picture to take,” he said. “I don’t think it’ll ever happen again, to be honest, especially in my career, because it’s almost over anyway. It’s nice for him to stop by. Good-looking iguana.”

Eventually, though, the iguana’s fun in the sun ended, but not before a victory lap. The reptile pranced around and across the court, sprinting to the opposite baseline as the fans cheered the lizard’s courage. Officials eventually carefully carried the iguana away from the court, a towel wrapped around the Miami Open’s most persistent fan.

It’s not the first time a reptile has interrupted play. At an ATP Challenger Tour event in Sarasota last year, a snake slithered on court during match point.