Miami Open tournament director James Blake has told a pretty interesting story as the former American tennis star reveals he was once blasted by an anonymous ATP star for his decision to schedule him on Grandstand and put Nick Kyrgios on Stadium – the tournament’s No. 1 court.
Blake, a former world No. 4 who retired from pro tennis in 2013, has been serving as the Miami Open tournament director since 2018.
That year – which was the last year of the Miami Open’s old site at Crandon Park – Blake was having his inaugural year as the tournament’s boss while a 22-year-old Kyrgios was making his third appearance at the tournament.
Although Kyrgios was widely criticized and scrutinized at the time by the media, he was selling tickets as well as anyone and there was major interest in his matches. In Miami, that was also the case as many fans wanted to see Kyrgios in live action, who at the time already had at least one win over each member of the Big Three.
Also, the fact that Kyrgios made back-to-back Miami semifinals in 2016 and 2017 and that he played a thriller against Roger Federer a year earlier also contributed to a great interest in the Australian’s matches.
When taking everything into consideration, Blake thought that scheduling Kyrgios on the…
