Family affair marks opening day at Miami Open

By Harvey Fialkov

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Instead of focusing on her upcoming first-round match of qualifying at the prestigious Miami Open presented by Itaú on a breezy Sunday afternoon on the outside hard courts at Hard Rock Stadium, Tatjana Maria’s mind and heart were about 20 miles away on the clay courts of Veltri Racquet Center where her 11-year-old daughter, Charlotte, was competing in a junior tennis tournament.

“Nobody cares about me anymore,’’ laughed the 87th-ranked Maria after slicing her way to a routine 6-2, 6-2 victory over 126th-ranked Leolia Jeanjean, 29, of France. “After warmups for my match, I was watching her score on my phone and texting her other coach [Bertrand Perret].

“I saw she was losing 5-7, 1-3. I went on the court and after I saw she lost 7-6. She’s winning just by the experience. She has to love it and have fun. It’s more important to build character, build her game and learn what she has to do on the court to find solutions.”

While Charlotte took a tough semifinal loss in a USTA Girls’ 14s Level 6 junior tournament, Mom fared better and is hopeful of sneaking into the 128-player draw of a tournament where in 2019 she dispatched then defending Miami Open champion (and 2017 US Open champion] Sloane Stephens, 6-3, 6-2 in a round-of-32 match.

Maria — who like a fine wine is improving with age — was ranked a career-high 42 last year at 36. She knew Jeanjean’s game, having beaten her in three tough sets to win an ITF $100,000 in India earlier this year.

“I was focused from the first point to the last point,’’ said Maria, who was born in Germany but whose father is Polish, mother is Austrian and husband/coach Charles-Edouard is a French American with a Colombian mother.

“My children are everything,’’ Maria joked. “You never know what will happen. I played her a few weeks ago and won 6-4 in the third so I knew it would be a tough match. I know she’s an emotional girl, so I just stayed calm the whole match.”

Unlike her mother, Charlotte, who is quite petite, possesses aggressive ground strokes and although she can slice and dice, no player slices from both sides as much as Maria. Two weeks ago, Charlotte won the back-draw title of another Level 6 girls’ 14s event in Plantation and received a good sportsmanship award, a $15 gift certificate to Chipotle’s Mexican Grill.

“She loves Chipotle,” her father said at the time before driving back to their home in Palm Beach Gardens, about an hour’s drive from Hard Rock Stadium.

Maria has had a solid career, winning two WTA singles titles and four doubles titles ($6 million earnings] while enduring two sabbaticals to have Charlotte and soon-to-be 4-year-old Cecelia or Cece. She even changed from a two-hand backhand to one after her first maternity leave.

Her biggest thrill was a magical run at the 2022 Wimbledon semifinals where she fell to then second-ranked Ons Jabeur. In the second round she survived being down double breaks in the third set to 26^th seed Sorana Cirstea when she said: “Some people like to do bungee-jumping. I like to come back to tennis after having kids.”

“I was unseeded and one of the last to make the draw,’’ said Maria, who was one person away from making the main draw this week. “Cece was 1-year-old, so it was an amazing week two weeks to enjoy with my whole family. Every match was super difficult.”

The Maria family symbolized the opening day of the Miami Open as for the first time, fans were granted free access and parking to the tournament. The online tickets were sold out and the grounds were teeming with children of all ages enjoying the interactive tennis games, the 50 food vendors, as well as riding high in the sky on the gondolas.

“This was a perfect soft opening,’’ said tennis fan Abby Febles of Miami. “I love seeing all the families and children experiencing great tennis on these intimate outside courts. I’ve come to this tournament since it was called The Lipton [nearly 40 years ago]. It seems to get better and better every year.”

The swarming fans also enjoyed a spectacular, colorful fashion show and dancing models on the Lacoste runway surrounded by water while music by Bad Bunny filled the air.

Maria’s goals are modest. She wants to hang around long enough to play doubles with Charlotte on the WTA Tour.

“Who knows what the future holds?” Maria said. “If my body holds up; if I still am playing good I would love to play with her. The important thing is we are together all the time, traveling the world as a family. That makes it comfortable and if your surroundings are nice, you play better on the court.”

If Mom and daughter don’t end up on the grass at Wimbledon, there’s always the chance that sibling sisters, Charlotte and Cece, could follow in the Williamses legendary footsteps.

“Cece already has a racket in her hands, plus she golfs and boxes. She won’t be easy as Charlotte for umpires,’’’ smiled Maria. “She will be the crazy one. The wild one is coming.”

In a surprise, doubles legend Sara Errani, 37, of Italy, who’s coming off a mixed doubles title at Indian Wells, lost her qualifying match in two tiebreaks to 18-year-old Aussie, 85^th-ranked Maya Joint. Errani’s rank has slipped to 118 in singles but she’s still sixth in doubles. She has won all four major doubles titles, partnering with countrywoman Roberta Vinci from 2012-2014, and won Olympic gold doubles in Paris last year with fellow Italian Jasmine Paolini.

Twelve qualifiers will make it into the draw after Monday’s second round. The men’s qualifiers begin on Monday.

Despite losing to teen prodigy Mirra Andreeva in Sunday’s thrilling, three-set Indian Wells Masters 1000 final, top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka remains the No. 1 seed at this week’s Miami Open Masters 1000. Defending champion Danielle Collins, seeded 14, is in Sabalenka’s top half of the 128-player draw and could face the Belarusian in the fourth round.

Iga Swiatek, the 2022 Miami Open champion, who failed to win her third consecutive Indian Wells, is seeded second. Andreeva, 17, is seeded 11th in the third quadrant and the Russian could face American top-10er Emma Navarro, the eighth seed, in the sweet 16 in her bid for the Sunshine Double.

Third-seeded and crowd favorite Coco Gauff, the 2023 US Open titlist, who grew up in nearby Delray Beach, will have an intriguing second-round match against a Grand Slam champion. The recently turned 21-year-old will play the winner of wild-card entrant Petra Kvitova and fellow South Floridian Sofia Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion. Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion and 2023 Miami winner, recently made her return to tennis after taking 17 months off to give birth to her son Petr in July.

Australian Open champion Madison Keys, seeded fifth, is in a Grand Slam-packed bottom half, along with three-time Miami Open champion Victoria Azarenka, Jelena Ostapenko and Swiatek. First, Keys, will possibly have to deal with Andreeva’s older sister Erika, 21, a wild-card recipient in round 2.