Miami Preparing For New Venue's Debut

  • Posted: Feb 01, 2019

Miami Preparing For New Venue’s Debut

Feb012019

The ATP Masters 1000 event begins on 20 March

It may be Super Bowl Sunday this weekend in Atlanta. But the staff of the Miami Open presented by Itau is hard at work at another football location, as the ATP Masters 1000 tournament relocates from Key Biscayne to Hard Rock Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins.

The new venue has a total of 12 tournament courts and 18 practice courts. The new Centre Court, built inside the Dolphins’ stadium, will hold 14,000 fans. There will also be a Grandstand outside of the stadium. Fans and players alike will be able to look up at a giant video board, which the tournament touts as the biggest in tennis.

“I think it’s good it’s going to be moved to Miami Dolphins’ stadium,” World No. 10 Marin Cilic said at last year’s event. “The tournament definitely needs more space, the tournament has been trying to deal with that for many years now. I hope it’s going to be a great move for the fan experience [and] for the player experience.”

While reigning Nitto ATP Finals champion Alexander Zverev enjoyed competing in Key Biscayne, where he reached the final in 2018, the German is excited for what moving to Hard Rock Stadium will do to make the Masters 1000 tournament even better.

“The stadium will be much bigger and it was be also kind of indoors/outdoors,” Zverev said. “I think it will be even more electric and nice for us to play. I hope that it will be even better.”

American John Isner is the tournament’s defending champion. The Miami Open presented by Itau is set to take place from 20-31 March.

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