MIAMI GARDENS, Florida — The 2019 Miami Open is being held about thirty miles from its former venue in Key Biscayne, but the center of culture surrounding the tournament remains the same and is thousands of miles to the south.
As there is no ATP 1000 tennis tournament (highest caliber in points) in Mexico, the Caribbean, Central or South America, the Open Miami it has become the Grand Slam of Latin America, attracting tennis fans from the region and all those who have immigrated from there. It is celebrated in Florida, but those who play as locals are Latin American tennis players.
“It feels great to have the support,” said Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer. “It’s almost like playing in Buenos Aires.”
The highest-ranked Latin American player, Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro, did not attend the tournament this year due to a knee injury, but fans in a recent match only had to change one letter of their slogan to celebrate his compatriot Federico Delbonis, who faced the number one in the men’s ranking. Novak Djokovic on March 24. “Olé olé olé olé Delpooo, Delpooo” became “Delbooo Delbooo”.
The Latino population in Miami also changes the experience of playing in the tournament even in moments off the courts. Delbonis celebrated that he was able to buy his own yerba mate in Miami, explaining that he usually has to travel with his own supply.
“Every time I come here I feel like this is where I want to be and live,” she said. “When I went out on the pitch I heard a lot of Argentines speak Spanish, cheer in Spanish, and you can feel the energy they give you. They give you confidence and you feel it. It’s very good for the game and to be happy on the court.”
Monica Puig, who won Puerto Rico’s first Olympic medal in 2016, also had plenty of home support in her first-round match against Wang Xiyu on March 20. Puig lost and said he was sorry he couldn’t play more during the season in front of that crowd, which included his father.
“To have that Latin American feel here, so lively all over the place, is very special,” said Puig, the only tennis player from Latin America who is in the top 100 of the women’s singles rankings.
There are even audiences from Latin American countries that do not have a representative in the tournament. On Friday, March 22, after Italy’s Fabio Fognini defeated Argentina’s Guido Andreozzi, a woman in the stands waved a Paraguayan flag.
Although Latin American tennis fans organically embraced the tournament, the event is now being promoted directly in South American countries digitally, in Spanish and Portuguese, as well as on Spanish-language websites in South Florida. (Although all signs at the tournament venue are in English only.)
U.S. tennis players have had to get used to playing in a home tournament where the public is not always in their favor. Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas recalled being stunned in 2011 when people in the stands shouted his country’s name as he was about to defeat American Andy Roddick, then defending champion of the tournament, on the main court in Key Biscayne.
In one of the last games of 2018 at the pre-venue, American John Isner, who would go on to win the championship, barely had the support of the crowd in the semifinal, where he faced Del Potro.
“The crowd was very excited, but their support wasn’t evenly distributed, 50-50,” Isner said, with a smile. “There were a lot of Argentine flags, that country really loves sports, football and tennis. To see all those flags in the audience… The atmosphere was great.”
Many other players who are not Latin American also appreciate the passion of those fans.
“I’ve always played better in countries and places where you feel that energy,” German Alexander Zverev said. “In Rome it’s great. Italians are energetic and powerful. In Madrid, Mexico, Miami: It’s always those kind of places where I’ve played best. For me it is more enjoyable if the audience makes a lot of noise, it has energy.”
Austria’s Dominic Thiem has won four of his twelve ATP titles in Latin America: two in Argentina, one in Mexico and one in Brazil.
“The energy of those countries and those people is beautiful,” Thiem said. “It feels like they’re always in a good mood, like they’re glad to be alive. It’s different sometimes in Europe… Maybe it’s the weather, I don’t know.”
James Blake, a retired American tennis player who now runs the Miami Open tournament, said he has especially fond memories of two matches against Brazil’s Thomaz Belucci in which the Americans in the stands couldn’t compete with the noise of the Brazilians.
“It’s super fun those games, because you stay on the edge of your seat,” Blake said. “Every important point, every shot, seems even bigger because the crowd is freaking out and you get mad that the other crowd is the one going crazy.”
Other players aren’t very comfortable with so much noise, though.
“There are some who don’t love it,” Blake said. “And they’ve let me know, on several occasions.”
Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki threatened last year to boycott the tournament after losing to Puig, saying her supporters felt threatened by the pro-Chavez crowd.
Wozniacki did return to the tournament this year and said he had not discussed what happened with tournament organizers again. He said he chose to focus on the positives of there being so much partisan enthusiasm, such as hearing the chants for Delbonis as he played on a nearby court and being able to tame the noise.
“It was like a football game,” Wozniacki said. “It’s great. Obviously it’s more fun when they sing for you. At the same time it’s also fun to leave the fans quiet, it’s funny when suddenly there’s a dead silence.”
Jérémy Chardy silenced the cacophonous Chileans backing his opponent in a first-round match, Nicolas Jarry, on March 21. When Chardy won, he blew air kisses to the Chilean contingent in the audience.
“When you play a South American here you always know it’s going to be tough,” Chardy said. “The crowd was complicated the whole game and I didn’t say anything, but when I won I wanted to blow them kisses and they responded with some fingers.”
Chardy added that he loves the passion of the crowd despite certain differences with it.
“Even if it’s not always respectful,” he said, “I’d rather there be an atmosphere than there isn’t.”
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