Miami Open to add wheelchair tennis, pickleball events to 2024 tournament

The ATP and WTA tours won't be the only attraction at this year's MiamI Open. The second leg of the Sunshine Double is adding wheelchair tennis and pickleball to its calendar in 2024, it confirmed this week.

The joint ATP Masters 1000 and WTA 1000 event will be played at Miami's Hard Rock Stadium this year from March 17-31, with a wheelchair tenns event (March 26-28) and a Major League Pickleball (MLP) event (March 27-29) set to be held in the second week.

Former world No. 1 Shingo Kunieda of Japan, who retired last year after winning 28 Grand Slam singles titles, will be the wheelchair event's tournament director, and two other major champions, Great Britain's Gordon Reid and Argentina’s Gustavo Fernandez, have already been confirmed for the field.

Meanwhile, 16 MLP pros will compete in an All-Star tournament, which will feature round-robin play and three playoff matches. They'll also play alongside celebrities in a pro-am round-robin tournament and a pro-am team exhibition match.

“We are delighted to welcome both wheelchair tennis players and MLP stars to this year’s Miami Open,” tournament director and former ATP world No. 4 James Blake said in a statement.

“We want to continue to build on the festival atmosphere that is now so synonymous with the Open and we are proud to be the first 1000 series event to showcase elite wheelchair tennis and pickleball athletes to our fans.”

The Miami Open, previously staged at Crandon Park on Key Biscayne for more than 30 years, moved to the home of the Miami Dolphins in 2019.