The 2025 Miami Open is well and truly underway now, with some of the biggest names on both the ATP and WTA Tours still featuring.
Novak Djokovic returned to winning ways in his first appearance at the Miami Open since 2019, but it has not been the case for all of the top seeds.
While the 24-time Grand Slam champion won his opening match in straight sets, Carlos Alcaraz was beaten by David Goffin in one of the shocks of the tournament so far.
In the women’s singles draw, the highest ranked casualties so far are Emma Navarro, who was beaten by Emma Raducanu, and Elena Rybakina.
Despite the excitement of the Miami Open so far, the tournament have been heavily criticized for something that they did during the match between Jack Draper and Jakub Mensik.
Fans criticize the Miami Open for Joao Fonseca scheduling change
Indian Wells champion Draper was playing his first match since winning the biggest title of his career last week.
After Mensik won the first set in a tie-break, the players were embroiled in a battle midway through the second set when suddenly there was confusion as fans appeared to pile out of the stadium midgame.
Brazilian superstar Joao Fonseca and Ugo Humbert were supposed to follow the Draper-Mensik match on Grandstand court.
However, the Miami Open tournament decided to make a late decision to move the match onto the main Stadium Court, leaving the Brazilian fans hoping to see Fonseca without a ticket.
This caused a lengthy disruption to the match between Draper and Mensik, with both players deciding to sit back down on their respective benches.
With some of the Fonseca fans leaving the Grandstand court booing, fans took to social media to criticize the Miami Open for their decision.
One fan on X (formerly known as Twitter) said, “Wow. This is very surprising. I would be so bummed if I paid for a ticket to see my main man and they moved his match.”
Another added, “That’s just embarrassing.”
Followed by an additional social media saying, “This is an absolute disgrace. Full refunds and free tickets for life now.”
Someone else on X went onto reveal that some of the Fonseca fans had been sitting on Grandstand for nearly six hours hoping to see their favourite player.
“People have been sitting in the grandstand since 10:30am to watch JF. The organizers decide to change Joao’s game mid other match,” they said. “Do you need a PHD to figure that this is a horrible idea?”
Others suggested that this decision was disrespectful to everyone involved and that the Miami Open should not be pleased with themselves.
“Disrespectful to the crowd who paid for Fonseca primarily but also to Jakub and Jack.”
“Disappointing.. the organizers should be ashamed.”
As a result of this late decision, the opening part of the highly anticipated match between Fonseca and Mensik was left with an almost empty stadium.
What has Joao Fonseca said about moving court at the Miami Open?
Fonseca showed his promise and went onto beat 19th seed Humbert for the first time, winning 6-4 6-3.
Despite the controversy surrounding the court change, the 18-year-old told his press conference after the match that he knew there was a chance that this could happen and was ultimately pleased with the decision.
“I knew since morning when I wake up we were going to the club, we knew that it was possible to change courts,” said Fonseca. “Yeah, if the matches got, like, quicker, has like opportunity to put on the Stadium, they would put it.
“Yeah, I was watching Grandstand, Draper and Mensik, watching at the same time Coco, seeing which one was going faster. They decided to go Stadium anyway. So yeah, at this time I knew it was right to go to the Stadium.
“Since morning I knew it was maybe Grandstand or maybe Stadium. Yeah, I really like the decision because I already played my first round there, so I knew how was the court, how was the atmosphere. I knew there was going to be a lot of Brazilians, also.
“About the Brazilians, the crowd is super nice. It’s an honor seeing a lot of Brazilians cheering for me, saying my name every game I win. It’s really, really nice. Yeah, it’s good (smiling).”
Fonseca will look to continue his rise up the ranks when he plays his next match at the Miami Open against 10th seed Alex de Minaur.
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