"Courts here are faster than last week, this is more of a traditional hard court event, speed here WAS about the same as Sydney, at Indian Wells it is more like Roland Garros ! Add in that we were on on the West Coast and in the desert last week and are now 3,600 km away in the East , with a three hour time difference and it is a very big adjustment for anyone who went deep at Indian Wells and has little time to get used to the change. On top of which, this year the event moves from Key Biscayne to the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, home of the Dolphins. They have spent over $500m on the courts/renovations and tried to get the court speed up, with complaints it was too slow in Key Biscayne, never mind Indian Wells, so this is going to be a real step into the unknown. I saw video of Reoger Federer practicing here just hours after losing to Dominic Thiem on Sunday, so he was keen to get some hour hours in, but not everyone has access to a private jet !

 

We will know more about how this surface plays after R1, but I did see that 13 of the 21 qualifiers yesterday, that played to a finish, went to three sets and there were a number of players who took time to adjust and won after losing the opening set very easily. My thinking is that qualifiers might have a bigger edge than usual in the early rounds and any knowledge of these courts will be a huge advantage. "