By Richard Pagliaro | @TennisNow | Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Photo credit: Miami Open/Hard Rock Stadium
The Miami Open is laying out a wild card welcome mat for two popular former champions.
The 2023 tournament champion Petra Kvitova and 2018 champion and Floridian Sloane Stephens lead the list of 2025 Miami Open women's main draw wild cards, the tournament announced today.
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The Miami Open presented by Itaú is set for March 16-30 at the iconic Hard Rock Stadium.
The two-time Wimbledon winner Kvitova and the 2017 US Open champion Stephens are joined by Ajla Tomljanovic, Tyra Grant, Alexandra Eala, Victoria Mboko and Sayaka Ishii in receiving wild cards to join the women’s field.
On the men’s side, 19-year-old lefty Learner Tien, who has two wins this season against Top 5 opponents, is joined by Christopher Eubanks, Eliot Spizzirri, Federico Cina and Wu Yibing.
Qualifier Tien shocked former world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev at the Australian Open in January then backed up that momentous win sweeping world No. 2 Alexander Zverev in Acapulco last week.
The Miami Open will be Kvitova’s third tournament since giving birth to a son, Petr, seven months ago. Kvitova owns 31 titles in her career and will be making her 14th appearance in Miami.
In her 13th Miami appearance, a then 33-year-old Kvitova fended off Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina 7-6(14), 6-2, in the 2023 final to become the second-oldest women’s champion in tournament history after Serena Williams, who was 33 when she lifted the title trophy in 2015.
"I think this is the best feeling what you can have, winning a final as I did today," Kvitova said. "That's I love the most, the winning feeling of it."
The 33-year-old Kvitova joined Serena Williams and Chrissie Evert as the only women to contest the Miami final after celebrating her 33rd birthday. Among active women, only Venus Williams (49), who recently declined an Indian Wells wild card but has not yet officially retired, owns more tournament titles than Kvitova, who raised her finals record to 30-11.
The remaining WTA wild cards have been awarded to teenagers.
Eala, a 19-year-old native of the Philippines, was the 2022 US Open junior winner and previously won a pair of doubles titles at junior Grand Slam events.
Mboko, 18, is a Canadian who has already claimed seven professional titles after reaching as high as No. 6 as a junior.
Grant, an American who turns 17 next week, has been ranked as high as the No. 2 junior in the world and has won three junior doubles titles at Grand Slam events.
Lastly, Ishii, a Japanese 19-year-old, previously held at No. 5 in the junior rankings.
Tien has reached the quarterfinals in two of his last five Tour events along with a run to the Round of 16 at the Australian Open. A two-time US 18s hard court champion, he won seven professional titles during the 2024 season.