TUESDAY SCHEDULE and PREVIEW | 2024 Miami Open: HALEP-BADOSA, VENUS WILLIAMS and WOZNIACKI all in action

Tuesday, 19 March 2024 at 09:20

The opening day of action at the 2024 Miami Open is here on the WTA side of the draw with the men's set to begin on March 20th. It is the first round that is the name of the game to begin Tuesday with three top ties in particular.

Our preview looks ahead to those ties as action begins in the second half of the so-called Sunshine Double after Indian Wells and Florida is the next destination.

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Emma Raducanu not playing aside, there are three top ties in a row on the opening day as Grandstand takes centre stage. Prior to those, Peyton Stearns as the leading American on Day One will be in action as she faces Yafan Wang fresh off nearly defeating Aryna Sabalenka at Indian Wells. Instead, it was Emma Navarro that accounted for her, but hopefully she takes some of that confidence forward.

But it is the long awaited return of a certain Simona Halep with the former World No.1 set to face off against former World No.3, Paula Badosa in a battle of players on the comeback trail. Halep received a late wildcard after having her doping ban rescinded from four years to nine months and will now have designs on making up for lost time. But what form she is in is very much a mystery. The same can be said likely for the opponent of the winner.

Aryna Sabalenka was hit with tragedy over night as her boyfriend, Konstantin Koltsov sadly passed away at the age of 42 so whether she plays at all is unlikely. The winner of Halep and Badosa is slated to face her in the second round.

Other ties on Grandstand include Venus Williams in another wildcard for the American legend who conducted the draw on television, but faces a tough draw in recent first time WTA winner Diana Shnaider. Caroline Wozniacki too faces a tough ask as she faces Clara Burel who dumped out Jessica Pegula in Melbourne and should've defeated Coco Gauff last time out in Indian Wells. But the former World No.1 herself has started her comeback trail and looked good before retiring against Iga Swiatek in California in the latter stages. So certainly the most likely of the returnee winners on Tuesday.