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Headlining the list of Miami Open wild cards announced Monday is two-time champion (and two-time finalist) Andy Murray.
Murray, who hasn’t played Miami since 2016, missed the Dubai tournament this week because of the birth of his fourth child with wife Kim.
In addition to Murray, the other main-draw wild cards were also announced. And they skew young:
Carlos Alcaraz (ESP)
Michael Mmoh (USA)
Hugo Gaston (FRA)
Jack Draper (GBR)

On the women’s side, Ana Konjuh of Croatia, the former top-20 player who is trying to come back from a few years in injury hell, has been given a main-draw wild card.
Some of the other choices are … interesting.
The IMG agency owns this tournament. And they most often use those wild cards to give their players high-level playing opportunities.
The others are:
Anna Kalinskaya (RUS)
Storm Sanders (AUS) (!!!!)
Katrina Scott (USA)
Mayar Sherif (EGY)
Xiyu Wang (CHN)
Xinyu Wang (CHN)
Miami qualifying wild cards mostly American for the men, mixed bag for the women
Americans Ulises Blanch, Christopher Eubanks, Toby Kodat and Emilio Nava, along with Shintaro Mochizuki of Japan, have been given wild cards into the men’s qualifying.
On the women’s side, the passes have gone to to a more international group that includes only three Americans.
Hayley Baptiste (USA)
Olga Danilovic (SRB)
Alexandra Eala (PHI)
Linda Fruhvirtova (CZE)
Robin Montgomery (USA)
Whitney Osuigwe (USA)
Notably shut out are former IMG clients Genie Bouchard and Jack Sock.
Bouchard is about a dozen spots out of the qualifying at this point, having been entered with her ranking prior to the jump she was able to make by getting to the final of Guadalajara last week.
If no Wild Card or Special Exempt, at least some kind of scheduling from Monday to Tuesday would have been a nice gesture for a hard working little girl like Leylah, especially in this crazy pandemic era. Very disappointed in Miami organization…
I understand why Leylah didn’t get a Wildcard into Miami (her results this year before Monterrey were mediocre)… but why didn’t they give her a Special Exempt for Miami? It seems that Special Exempts are made for exactly the type of situation Leylah found herself in.
(And, by the way, Genie didn’t get to the final of Monterrey, as written in the article above, she got to the final of Guadalajara.)
No, I don’t think you understand. That’s definitely not the reason why she didn’t get one.
IMG is the majority owner of the Miami Open. And it almost always gives the WCS to its own clients to give them opportunities (or a former champion like Andy Murray or Clijsters).
Also – you can’t get a “special exempt” for a 1000-level event from a small 250. It is so many levels up.
As a comparison, Genie Bouchard got a special exempt into Monterrey because she was unable to make the qualifying at .. another 250 in Guadalajara.
But in that case she was literally playing on the day the qualifying was taking place.
In this case, Fernandez was not playing on that day. Even if the turnaround is really difficult.
(P.S. – thanks for the catch on Bouchard. Fixed).
Leylah Annie Fernandez wins Monterrey and doesn’t get a wild card! She is expected to celebrate, maybe 30 seconds, fly to Miami, maybe eat or sleep, and be ready to play in about 20 hours. Come on, James Blake, what gives? This would never happen at Indian Wells.
Yes, it would.
They hand out the wild cards long before the results of Monterrey are known.
(Plus, Blake doesn’t make those calls anyway).
Thanks Stephanie,
I know most wild cards are awarded several days before any given tournament. And my poke at Mr. Blake was in jest. But many tournaments, including IW, save wild cards for the main draw and quallies, specifically for circumstances such as this.
No, they rarely do, actually.
The turnaround in this case is just too quick, anyway.
How can you keep an entire draw waiting for the results of a tournament played the … night before it is about to start?
Plus, IMG mostly owns the Miami Open and they have always awarded the wild cards to their own clients (or, occasionally, to a former champion like Andy Murray). It was never even an issue.