Some matches have been cancelled at the Miami Open as the rain delay continues (Image: Sky Sports)
Organisers of the Miami Open have cancelled most 37 matches scheduled for Wednesday, as rain continues to wreak havoc. Play was initially due to start at 11am local time (3pm GMT), with the exception of the Grandstand court, where the first match was scheduled for 12pm local (4pm GMT). Tournament bosses had already confirmed there would be no play on the main Stadium court on Wednesday, as rainfall meant some areas of the court “required additional preparation”.
However, as of 3pm local time (7pm GMT), there has still been no play. Initially, 12 matches had been removed from the order of play altogether. This included Venus Williams’ clash with British No. 4 Francesca Jones, and Stefanos Tsitsipas’ match against British qualifier Arthur Fery. A revised order of play, which states that play will not begin before 4pm local time (8pm GMT), included just 25 matches. Two of these were empty ‘WTA Match’ slots, which had yet to be filled.
On the ATP side, the following matches have been cancelled for the day and will likely be played on Thursday: Ethan Quinn vs Hubert Hurkacz; Alexandre Muller vs Matteo Berrettini; Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Arthur Fery; Marcos Giron vs Martin Landaluce; Darwin Blanch vs Jan Lennard Struff; Nikoloz Basilashvili vs Mariano Navone. Meanwhile, Zhizhen Zhang vs Adrian Mannarino has been moved from Court 3 to Court 4.
On the WTA side, the following matches are no longer on the schedule: Venus Williams vs Francesca Jones; Taylor Townsend vs Lulu Sun; Viktorija Golubic vs Peyton Stearns; Caty McNally vs Rebeka Masarova; Sara Bejlek vs Talia Gibson; Lilli Tagger vs Ella Seidel.
It is not known whether any of these will be moved to the empty slots on Butch Buchholz and Court 5. Elsewhere, Eva Lys’ contest with Yuliia Starodubtseva has been moved from Court 1 to Court 3. A qualifier / lucky loser vs qualifier / lucky loser match was scheduled for Court 3. This has disappeared.
However, a new order of play was released shortly after 4pm local time (8pm GMT). This showed that the Grandstand night session would start at 7pm local time (11pm GMT) as planned, featuring Venus Williams vs Francesca Jones, and Alexandre Muller vs Matteo Berrettini.
The matches on other courts due to start at 5pm local time are: Denis Shapovalov vs Botic van de Zandschulp; Viktorija Golubic vs Peyton Stearns; Eva Lys vs Yuliia Starodubtseva; Reilly Opelka vs Nuno Borges; Emiliana Arango vs Oksana Selekhmeteva; Alycia Parks vs Sinja Kraus; Dalma Galfi vs Elvina Kalieva; Lilli Tagger vs Ella Seidel; Giovanno Mpetshi Perricard vs Camilo Ugo Carabelli; Darja Semenistaja vs Elisabetta Cocciaretto; Anastasia Zakharova vs Anna Bondar; Tereza Valentova vs Katie Volynets.
Venus Williams’ match against Francesca Jones was initially removed from the schedule (Image: Getty)
Jamie Murray, the former doubles world No. 1 and current tournament director of the ATP 500 event at the Queen’s Club, was in Sky Sports’ commentary booth on Wednesday, expecting to call matches. And he gave an insight into what fans could expect from Thursday’s schedule in Miami, given the delays and cancellations.
“It probably depends on how many match courts they can put in play tomorrow. On the schedule today, they’ve got eight courts. They might have the potential to do 10 or 11 courts. It also depends on how many are set up for electronic line calling, hawkeye, all the sort of stuff as well. We’ll see, but there’s going to be a lot of matches for sure,” he explained.
“I think, ideally, they’ll try to get through everything just so that they’re back on track and players aren’t necessarily having to play back-to-back or even double up on one day. I think they’re far away from that. The good thing is there are a lot of days in the tournament as well. They’re not playing five-set matches as well for the guys, so for them to play back-to-back three-setters, I don’t think it’s much of an issue. And, to be honest, I think half the draw would rather be doing that anyway! I don’t think they like the days off.”
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