Tennis Fun Club

The Sony Ericsson Open is an annual hard-court tennis tournament which is held in Key Biscayne, Florida. The event is second of the nine ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events and is a Premier Mandatory event on the women’s tour. The 12 day tournament boasts the participation of the top men’s and women’s players in the world. It is a must visit tennis event that takes place in Miami with a record 297,011 people visiting the Tennis Center at Crandon Park in 2008 and nearly 294,000 in 2009.

The event was originally known as Lipton International Players Championships. In 2002, the event was named as NASDAQ-100 Open. In 2007, the tournament was named as Sony Ericsson Open as the company has agreed to pay US$20 million over the next four years. The tournament is also known as Miami Masters. This is one of the few tournaments besides the Grand Slams where the main draw play extends beyond one week.

The tournament was founded by former player Butch Buchholz. In keeping the ambitions of its founders, the tournament is one of the most well-known and prestigious events on the tour, and is considered as ‘fifth major’ by many people. The Sony Ericsson Open was selected as ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament of the year for the fifth time in the past six seasons by the players.

Tournament facts –

Venue – Tennis Center at Crandon Park
Surface – Hard (Laykold) / Outdoors
Official Ball – Penn
Men’s Singles – 96 players
Women’s Singles – 96 players
Men’s Doubles – 32 pairs
Women’s Doubles – 32 pairs
Courts – There are 12 tennis courts at the venue, with a 13,300 seat Stadium court.
Winner of most Men’s Singles titles – Andre Agassi – 6 titles
Winner of most Women’s Singles titles – Steffi Graf and Serena Williams – 5 titles each.
Next Tournament - March 21, 2011
Past Winners – Andy Roddick