Former No. 1s Venus Williams, Simona Halep, Caroline Wozniacki headline Miami Open Tuesday

The Miami Open women’s main draw begins on Tuesday at Hard Rock Stadium, and it includes a trip down memory lane as a trio of former world No. 1s Venus Williams, Caroline Wozniacki and Simona Halep are among the headliners.

All three were granted wild cards into the tournament. Williams, who turns 44 in June and has dropped to No. 457 in the rankings, opens against Diana Shnaider.

Wozniacki, the 33-year-old mother-of-two, returned from a three-year maternity leave last summer. She reached the quarterfinals at Indian Wells last week and faces Clara Burel in her opening match. Halep, in her first match back since a doping ban, plays Paula Badosa.

The current world No. 1 Iga Swiatek of Poland, coming off an Indian Wells title over the weekend, is the favorite. She has a first-round bye and will face Magdalena Frech or Camila Giorgi in the second round. If she makes it to the semifinals, she could face American Coco Gauff, the Delray Beach native who celebrated her 20^th birthday last week.

Gauff, who is seeded No. 3, reached the semifinals in Indian Wells last week and plays her Miami Open first match against fellow American Ashlyn Krueger or a qualifier. She could wind up playing unseeded Naomi Osaka, the former Grand Slam champion, in the fourth round and No. 6 seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia in the quarterfinals.

The other side of the women’s draw features a potentially spicy early match with No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka perhaps facing Halep, who is playing her first tournament after being reinstated following a doping suspension.

Halep, 32, has not played an official match since 2022 and was granted a Miami Open wild card after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) recently reduced her four-year suspension to nine months. Her first match back will be tough, as she plays Paula Badosa of Spain in the first round Tuesday. The winner faces Sabalenka in the second round.

Fourth seed Elena Rybakina and No. 8 Maria Sakkari of Greece, who beat Gauff at Indian Wells, are also in that side of the bracket.

Defending champion Petra Kvitova will not get a chance to defend her title as she is away on maternity leave.

On the men’s side, No. 2 ranked Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz enters as the favorite after dispatching defending Miami Open champion Daniil Medvedev in the Indian Wells final on Sunday.

If Alcaraz wins Miami, which he did in 2022, he could be in the running to regain the No. 1 ranking in the coming months. Top-ranked Novak Djokovic withdrew from the Miami Open after a stunning loss to 123^rd ranked lucky loser Lucas Nardi in Indian Wells.

Alcaraz faces Aleksandar Vukic or countryman Roberto Carballes Baena in his opening match and could face No. 16 seeded American Ben Shelton later in the tournament. Other top players in that side of the draw include Grigor Dmitrov, Alexander Zverev and former Miami Open champion Hubert Hurkacz.

Australian Open winner Jannik Sinner, who was a runner up in Miami last year, is the No. 2 seed this week and Medvedev is No. 3. Andrey Rublev is No. 5 and Casper Ruud is No. 7. Another interesting name in the men’s draw is three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray of Great Britain, who enters as a wild card and faces Matteo Berrettini of Italy in his opening match.

Qualifying rounds continued on Monday. Among the players who advanced were Taylor Townsend, who beat Emina Bektas 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 in an All-American match. American Katie Volynets rallied to beat Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. American J.J. Wolf beat fellow American Eliot Spizzirri 6-3, 7-5 and Alexander Kovacevic beat Patrick Kypson 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) in another All-USA matchup.

Tickets are available at miamiopen.com