Beach, please 🏝️
Miami Open Recap
There are many storylines from the 2025 Miami Open which made me laugh and inspired me. For me, this tournament wasn’t about the wins or the losses, it was about the drama along the way.
For one, Danielle Collins adopted a dog. A big-ass German Shepherd was out here in Miami looking for his poochie daddy. Okay, in all seriousness the dog was hit by a car. However, the story has a happy ending. Collins saw the dog was hit by a car near Miami Gardens and took him to a local veterinarian who saved his life. Now the dog, named Crash, has a new home with Collins and can live a five-star lifestyle.
Second, two countries came together and supported their young stars, Alexandria Eala and João Fonseca. Eala from the Philippines and Fonseca from Brazil ignited the tennis world and their country’s tennis fanbase this tournament, diversifying the game and expanding the viewership on a global level.
We also saw two big Instagram relationship launches from Ben Shelton and Coco Gauff. Shelton is apparently dating soccer player Trinity Rodman and Gauff is dating a Vegyn fan. If you don’t listen to Vegyn, remember I put you on.
Lastly, I do love a heated post-match social media exchange. I’m talking about Amanda Anisimova and Mirra Andreeva feud. I don’t think Anisimova was off-base here. If you want to know what I’m talking about, I guess you’ll have to keep reading.
In this newsletter I cover the Miami Open 2025’s:
☝️ Biggest Come Up
🥩 Biggest Beef
💪 Biggest Flex
🫤 Biggest Flop
😢 Biggest Loser
🏆 Biggest Winner
🎤 Shoutout(s)
☝️ Biggest Come Up
Alexandria Eala
This storyline was hard to miss this Miami Open. Nineteen-year-old Alexandria Eala entered the tournament a wildcard ranked No. 140, yet went on to beat Jelena Ostapenko, Madison Keys, and Iga Swiatek. Eala made it to the the semifinals where she faced Jessica Pegula and lost in a close three sets.
Pretty random, right? Kind of.
Eala was losing to players outside of the top 200 before the Miami Open. Her winning against top players coming from a wildcard draw is random.
However, she’s still coming off of a Junior Grand Slam title and two Doubles Junior Grand Slam Titles and has been training at the Rafa Nadal Academy in Spain since she was 12. Eala is great serve returner and was able to break serve, easily frustrating Maddie and Iga. She’s also one of the best volly-ers (?) I’ve seen in a long time. Not so random
This was also a big milestone for Philippine sports:
Eala is the first Filipina to defeat multiple Grand Slam champions consecutively at a WTA event.
Eala’s win over No. 25 and 2017 French Open Champion Jelena Ostapenko, marked the first time a Filipina beat a top-30 WTA opponent.
Eala’s win over No.5 and current AO Champion, Madison Keys, marked the first time a Filipina player in the Open Era beat a top-10 opponent.
Eala’s win over No.2 Iga Swiatek marked the first time a Filipina to reach the semifinals in a WTA 1000 event and pushed her into the WTA’s top 100 rankings, becoming the first Filipina to do so.
🥩 Biggest Beef
Amanda Anisimova and Mirra Andreeva
In the pair’s third encounter, Amanda Anisimova defeated Indian Well’s Champion Mirra Andreeva in three sets in a match that featured many medical timeouts and a social media exchange afterwords.
Here’s a timeline of events:
Andreeva took an early medical timeout due to stomach thingy. Anisimova (and myself) felt is was a little disruptive to the rythm of this match on this hot Miami night.
In the deciding set, Anisimova led 3-1 and the game was at deuce on Andreeva’s serve. Anisimova requested a medical timeout to fix a blister. Andreeva was like wtf and suggested it was fake to which the umpire said Animisova had the right to immediate treatment.
Anisimova posted a video on her Instagram story showing her injured middle finger, captioned with Andreeva’s on-court remark that’s become a catchphrase “We all know why.”
💪 Biggest Flex
Brazil
João Fonseca hasn’t arrived yet.
If I said that in Brazil, I’d be imprisoned. There he’s known as Saint João Franca Guimarães Fonseca of Ipanema. I somewhat get the Fonseca hype. We live in a world of icon thirsty tennis fans looking for someone to cling onto in a post big three world. Sinner is suspended. Alcaraz’s mind is in the gutter. Here comes a young man with Brazilian flare. It’s fun. We’re all having fun.
But…the boy has only reached a career high No. 60 and has never had an impressive win (to me). I find it funny the whole country of Brazil showed up to the Miami Open to cheer him on. I’m happy for him though and I do hope he finds success. If I do see him at the U.S. Open this year, I really hope the crowd will be as crazy as we saw in Miami.
🫤 Biggest Flop
Patrick Mouratoglou
Between player Naomi Osaka and her coach Patrick Mouratoglou, one of their careers is peaking—and it’s not Naomi.
Osaka has had a dreadful run and has been getting bashed by the media. Following an abdominal strain in January, an AO withdrawal and poor showings at Indian Wells and Miami, she can do better than a content creator coach.
I do think she still is a great player—but I don’t think Mouratoglou can get her there when he’s too busy working on his content calendar. It’s super ironic too that a tennis influencer coach has all the tips in the world, but his player recently slipped to No. 61.
Lately, I’ve seen Osaka get worse and worse at the net. She’s lost points at simple tap-ins. I don’t think she’s been watching her coach’s videos enough
😢 Biggest Loser
Alexander Zverev
I’m not even going to write that much here. To quote Mirra Andreeva “We all know why.”
After his fourth round loss Zverev was quoted saying “I have to look at myself more than anything.” LOL.
Sad but true after another early departure from a tournament without Sinner or Alcaraz in the late stages.
Honorable mention: Novak Djokovic for getting his anti-vax on with RFK Jr.
🏆 Biggest Winner(s)
Old Guys
Old guys rule. Monfils and Dimitrov keep proving they can still play and entertain on a high level. Gael Monfils (38) lost to Sebastian Korda in the Round of 16. Grigor Dimitrov (33, but a hair tranplant king) lost to another old man Novak Djokovic (38) in the semi-finals. To add another old man to the pile, Lionel Messi (37), watched their match and definitely didn’t know he was at a tennis match.
🎤 Shoutouts
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