Travel Blog

Well, hasn't tennis become the rage? The year began with allegations of players throwing matches - or at least points - in a betting scandal (just in time for the Australian Open). Then Maria Sharapova was temporarily dismissed from the tour for using a banned substance. This past weekend at Indian Wells, the tournament CEO said in a press conference that women tennis players are "riding on the coattails of the men" and suggested that they should "get down on their kness" and thank Nadal and Federer. Everyone responded with indignation, it seemed, except Novak Djokovic, who tweeted something about female hormones before holding the obligatory press conference to say that he had misspoken.

In the middle of all this, Bud Collins died.

Which brings us to the Miami Open, now threatened with extinction. When I started going down to Key Biscayne - when the tournament was called the Lipton - it was considered the "fifth slam," in other words, the most important and prestigious tennis event after the three Opens (Australian, French, U.S.) and Wimbledon. Then as its name changed a few times - with variations on Sony-Ericsson - it started being eclipsed by Indian Wells, a place that distinguished itself in 2001 by crowd slurs against the Williams family after Venus withdrew from a match with Serena. The Williams sisters, understandably, left Indian Wells off their tennis schedules for the next 14 years. Yet large sums of money were spent to enlarge the grounds, making the tournament a fan and player (except for the Williams) favorite.

The same thing has not happened at Crandon Park on Key Biscayne. The facilities are aging, and not expected to improve because of resistance, according to New Times, from the man who gave the land to the city. The tennis world, just like the baseball world, is attracted to new stadiums and state-of-the-art facilities, so the thinking is that the Miami Open will soon pack up and move elsewhere, just as MLB teams did for spring training. A tournament that has never had a mark against it, that is - like its home city - a bridge between the two Americas, and that finally bears the name of that city (and not some nonsporting corporation), is under threat, while one that has a reputation for racism, and now sexism, thrives. 

It would have made Bud Collins weep.