MIAMI — Carlos Alcaraz needed to play in entrance of an lively crowd on the inaugural Miami Invitational.
The No. 1 males’s tennis participant received his want, drawing a roar of applause when he stepped onto the court docket and electrical cheers all through an exhibition occasion Monday evening at loanDepot Park, the house of Main League Baseball’s Miami Marlins.
It was a one-time occasion — the primary time tennis has ever been performed at loanDepot Park — and in addition featured rising Brazilian standout João Fonseca and girls’s stars Amanda Anisimova and Jessica Pegula.
Alcaraz defeated the Twenty fourth-ranked Fonseca 7-5, 2-6, 10-8 in an exciting singles match, their first time going through one another. Anisimova topped Pegula 6-2, 7-5 earlier within the evening. Alcaraz and Pegula additionally beat Anisimova and Fonseca in a combined doubles 10-point tie breaker.
“I simply anticipate that the persons are going to get entertained by watching us play,” Alcaraz mentioned earlier than the match. “I feel it is uncommon watching us play in these sorts of stadiums and court docket. I am actually enthusiastic about enjoying right here with João. I am simply excited to see how persons are going to reply.”
The 22-year-old Alcaraz not too long ago wrapped up the 2025 season, ending the marketing campaign with the ATP’s year-end No. 1 rating, tour-highs of 71 match wins and eight trophies and a pair of Grand Slam titles that lifted his profession whole to 6.
He is nonetheless been busy through the exhibition season, which additionally included an exhibition occasion in Newark, New Jersey, on Sunday during which Alcaraz performed a singles match in opposition to two-time US Open semifinalist Frances Tiafoe.
“I am having plenty of enjoyable,” Alcaraz mentioned. “Getting the vitality from the individuals, enjoying in some locations that we aren’t used to. It is thrilling. It has been nice thus far, and I am having fun with it quite a bit.”
The group Monday included Inter Miami stars Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, who grew to become MLS champions only a couple days in the past within the remaining match of their adorned careers.
Anisimova, a US Open and Wimbledon finalist this yr, and Pegula, who reached the US Open semis, each famous that Monday’s exhibition was a good way to arrange for the upcoming season in a brand new surroundings.
“I feel we love enjoying tennis and we love competing,” Pegula mentioned. “With the ability to change what that appears like a bit of bit the place it is not one thing we do 95% of the yr is at all times very nice and refreshing for us. I feel it is nice for the game. It provides it a diff search for the followers, for everybody that is concerned. For gamers, it form of retains us refreshed and form of brings you again to why you are enjoying.”
