What is the identity you strive to establish? My question is: You must have spent a lot of time thinking about how to shape the identity of the tournament in a new site. However, you can also flip that around and argue the versatility makes it special: That you are trying to give fans more bang for the buck with all the entertainment value on site. Obviously, you can’t recreate Crandon Park here or anywhere. Here, you drive into the venue and can wonder: is it a football stadium, is it a tennis stadium, is it a race track, is it a gondola ride? The Miami Open continues to get bigger and better with no COVID restrictions we’re at full capacity and I love it.Ī post shared by □ Miami Open □ lot of tennis purists loved Crandon Park on Key Biscayne because it was such a beautiful, scenic site, but also you cross the Causeway and it’s like you entered a tennis oasis, a tennis bubble where it was all tennis all the time. We’ve got some really, really good sponsors. We have unbelievable sponsors, especially on the beverage side: Stella Artois, Maestro Dobel Tequila, Santa Margherita wines. We’ve added a concert series with Kool & The Gang and Cimafunk on Friday and Saturday night so that’s exciting. As far as what we can control, we’ve added more activations on site so people have a lot of things to do in between the great matches they see. We try to get the best players in the world and we get everyone who can come. James Blake: We can’t control who’s playing. What are you most excited about this year’s Miami Open? What changes can fans who came last year look forward to this year? ![]() Still, the fans are here and we’ve seen good matches already, including Bianca Andreescu’s win earlier. RP: Iga withdrew today after you announced Novak was out last week. In this interview, the Miami Open tournament director talks tournament evolution, the best server he ever faced, the champion he regards as one of the two most hard-core competitors he’s ever met and the night he saw Serena rock a dive bar in Tampa. We caught up with Blake right outside Hard Rock Stadium shortly after Bianca Andreescu beat Emma Raducanu in a pulsating opener today. To date, the James Blake Foundation surpassed the $3 million mark in total funds raised for the fight against the disease. Memorial Research Fund, which launched in memory of James’s father and is dedicated to the early detection of cancers commonly discovered in later stages. to cancer that year the stress of both events resulted in a terrible case of shingles.įollowing his father’s death, James started the James Blake Foundation, supporting the efforts of the Thomas Blake Sr. He also lost his father and one of his biggest fans, Thomas Blake Sr. In 2004, Blake crashed into a net post in Rome and suffered a broken neck. ![]() While there was healthy skepticism after the move, Roger Federer helped bring the buzz to the new site capturing the 2019 Miami Open that was the first edition staged at Hard Rock.īlake grew up playing at the Harlem Junior Tennis Center, went to high school in Fairfield, Connecticut where he was friends with musician John Mayer and earned all-American honors at Harvard before turning pro. Organizers poured $60 million into transforming Hard Rock Stadium into a tennis facility complete with the unique stadium within a stadium planted on the Dolphins football field. ![]() The sun set on the Miami Open’s magical 32-year Key Biscayne run back in 2018. native remains a man in motion meeting with sponsors, conducting the tournament draws, discussing the tournament site with players and taking time out daily to welcome fans.īlake, named after his grandfather who was a New York City cop, enjoyed his playing days at the old Miami Open site on Crandon Park and has played a pivotal part in the tournament’s transition to the Hard Rock Stadium home of the Miami Dolphins. Blake won 10 ATP titles, served on the ATP Player Council and was a key player on the 2007 United States squad that captured the Davis Cup championship. 4 Blake was one of tennis’ fastest players and most explosive shotmakers. In his prime playing days, former world No. On the tournament’s opening Monday, Miami Open Tournament Director Blake was busy chatting with fans shortly after the gates open for the day’s play. ![]() MIAMI-Standing in front of the life-sized Dan Marino Statue outside of Hard Rock Stadium, James Blake is both signal caller and goodwill ambassador for the Miami Open.
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