Lipton Championships (tennis)
| Miami Open | |||||||||
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| Tournament information | |||||||||
| Founded | 1985 | ||||||||
| Location |
Miami, Florida USA |
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| Venue | Tennis Center at Crandon Park | ||||||||
| Surface | Hard (Laykold) / Outdoors | ||||||||
| Website | Official website | ||||||||
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| ATP World Tour | |
|---|---|
| Category | Masters 1000 |
| Draw | 96S / 48Q / 32D |
| Prize money | $7,037,595 |
| WTA Tour | |
|---|---|
| Category | Premier Mandatory |
| Draw | 96S / 48Q / 32D |
| Prize money | $6,844,139 |
The Miami Open is an annual tennis tournament for men and women held in Miami, Florida. It is an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event on the men's tour and a Premier Mandatory event on the women's tour, played on hard courts at the Tennis Center at Crandon Park. The tournament is held in March each year. It is owned by IMG.
The tournament has had multiple sponsorships in its history. It was initially known as the Lipton International Players Championships and was a premier event of the Grand Prix Tennis Tour from 1985 until 1990 as part of the Grand Prix Super Series. In 2000, the event was renamed the Ericsson Open. In 2002, the event became known as the NASDAQ-100 Open. In 2007, the tournament was renamed the Sony Ericsson Open, in a deal by which the company would pay $20 million over the next four years, until 2014. From 2015–2019, the international bank Itaú became the presenting sponsor, making the official name of the tournament Miami Open presented by Itaú.
In 2010, a record 300,000 visitors attended matches at the 12-day Sony Ericsson Open, making it one of the largest tennis tournaments outside the four Majors. In 2011, 316,267 visitors attended the Open.
The court has been criticized as the slowest hardcourt on the tour, subjecting players to endless grinding rallies in extreme heat and humidity.
The tournament was founded by former player Butch Buchholz. His original aim was to make the event the first major tournament of the year (the Australian Open was held in December at that time), and he dubbed it the "Winter Wimbledon". Buchholz approached the ATP and the WTA, offering to provide the prize-money, and to give them a percentage of the ticket sales and worldwide television rights in return for the right to run the tournament for 15 years. The two associations agreed.
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