In her latest Sky Sports column, Gigi Salmon reflects on Jannik Sinner’s Miami Open success, Danielle Collins’ fairytale ending and collecting her dog Quincy from doggy day care, celebrity spotting, avoided dancing with Annabel Croft, pickleball and ‘hell week’ at Barry’s Bootcamp…
Our trip to Miami started with a warning about how to run away from an alligator – they were frequently sighted near where we were staying – and ended with Martina Navratilova and Annabel Croft salsa dancing on the stadium court in the Hard Rock Stadium, only in Miami!
And in case you were wondering about the alligator escape tip, it was to run in a zig-zag line, because if you run in a straight line they are fast and will catch you, a slightly unnerving thing to hear on our first morning when you are shrouded in jetlag!
The Miami Open which is a joint ATP and WTA 1000 event and is the second part of the ‘Sunshine Swing’ is unique in that the main stadium is built just for the tournament on a football field, home to NFL side the Miami Dolphins, in the middle of a racetrack, with construction well under way for the Grand Prix that’s held at the start of May.
It also couldn’t be further removed from the first part of the swing, moving from the calmness and the dry heat of the desert and the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, swarm of bees aside, to the heat and humidity of the east coast of Florida, with one drinks stand within the Miami Tennis Gardens reading ‘stay hydrated, drink tequila’.
It’s a mandatory event, that we knew wouldn’t feature Novak Djokovic, who during the course of the tournament announced on social media a separation with coach Goran Ivanisevic, only a few months on from parting with his management team.
As of the time of writing, he is undecided as to his next course of action with regards to a coach.
Our next sighting of Djokovic will be at the Monte Carlo Masters, which he has won twice but not since 2015, that’s in a week’s time and of course you will be able to see it on Sky Sports Tennis.
Sinner’s dominance
Continuing his dominance of 2024 is Jannik Sinner, who dropped one set on his way to his maiden Miami title, making it his third title of the year with 22 wins and just one defeat. The new rankings will show a rise to a career high of number two.
He won the title by beating Grigor Dimitrov, who enjoyed a very good week in Miami, reaching his third Masters final, notching up three top-10 wins in a row (Hubert Hurkacz, Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev) and climbing back into the top 10 for the first time since 2018.
Speaking to Sky Sports Tennis, his coach Jamie Delgado revealed Dimitrov hadn’t been that well and had suffered with a slight fever ahead of his semi-final, so all the more impressive that he was able to do what he did.
Jamie also revealed that he had gone for a facial on his day off, when Dimitrov didn’t train, and something I didn’t know, that you should wait four to six weeks before having another one, so he opted ahead of the final for a beard trim!
Collins’ biggest win
There was somewhat of a fairytale ending in the women’s competition which saw American Danielle Collins, in her final year on tour playing in her home tournament, win the biggest title of her career.
After dropping the very first set she didn’t look back, not dropping another set before beating last year’s runner-up Elena Rybakina in the final.
Collins, chatting to us after her semi-final win, said she thinks her golf is helping her tennis as she is so bad at golf and that she’s currently “figuring out the wedge”. Just don’t ask her if she will reconsider retiring, her mind is made up, it took a long time to come to the decision and she’s looking forward to having “a normal life”.
That was highlighted when she left her press conference early to pick up her dog Quincy from doggy day care!
In terms of what winning a 1000 event can do, together with bumping up your bank balance, it also moved her from 53 in the rankings to 22, which means she will be seeded at Grand Slams, which in theory should make the early rounds that little bit easier.
Serena, Shakira and Agassi’s kisses to Martina
Gigi and Annabel Croft are spotted in front of Shakira at the Miami Open
Miami is also a place to spot celebrities and Annabel and I found ourselves on more than one occasion surrounded by photographers only to turn around and one night find 23-time Grand Slam champion and eight-time Miami winner Serena Williams behind us. And then for the men’s final the singer Shakira, who I saw a few years ago perform at the Davis Cup Finals.
Mike Tyson, who I have seen at Indian Wells over the years, came to watch on one day, and watching Danielle Collins win the biggest title of her career was Andre Agassi, who when he saw Martina, who had arrived for our post-match show, was blowing kisses to her across the court!
Annabel’s dancing and Pickleball
Gigi enjoyed a game of Pickleball
On the challenge front, I avoided the dancing while Annabel, who as you will all probably know reached the semi-finals of Strictly Come Dancing, headed off to Little Havana in Downtown Miami to salsa the night away.
I also avoided a car journey with Patrick, a member of the team driving on the ‘wrong side of the road’ for the first time, apparently the journey saw drinks spilled, expletives uttered and a fair amount of ‘just a little bit over to your left’.
I did have a go at pickleball, the largest growing sport in the US, and the best way I can describe it is that it’s a cross between tennis and table tennis, compared to padel – a sport I am a lot more familiar with which is best described as tennis in a squash court.
Hell week at Barry’s Bootcamp
All clay courts now lead to Roland Garros in May
I also discovered Barry’s Bootcamp which is a form of modern day torture, although having done five days straight at 6am producer Chris and I were told that what we had done is known as ‘hell week’ and for good reason.
So the ‘Sunshine Swing’ is complete, no double winner once again, but some great tennis was played and now tennis switches to the clay and love it or hate it there’s no avoiding it, with all roads leading to Roland Garros, which will also be staging the Olympic tennis event later this year.
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