Coco Gauff has criticised the Miami Open organisers for providing players with "unrealistic times" for their matches on Friday as rain caused significant disruption to the entire schedule, resulting in many stars being unable to play their scheduled matches.
Gauff was supposed to begin her campaign on the main show court at 11 am local time, having received a bye in the first round. However, the American did not compete against Argentinian qualifier Nadia Podoroska until after 5 pm.
Gauff was forced to wait around at the venue all day, hoping for the rain to cease. She believed that the tournament organisers were scheduling start times that were impractical due to the weather forecast.
"I came as normal schedule, even I knew it was going to rain. Shortened my warm-up before I hit so I could get a chance to hit. I did hit 15 minutes at, like, 9 in the morning. Don't know if that made a difference because we played so much later," Gauff said.
"Yeah, I was just waiting around, talked to some folks, played some games, read. It felt like a long wait. I was kind of not sure when to eat. Also the tournament was giving us unrealistic 'not before' times, so that felt a little bit weird, too."
Gauff wasted no time when she stepped onto the court, thrashing Podoroska 6-1, 6-2.
"I was most pleased with just starting the match well 'cause when you come out and it's a long wait, you never know how you're going to start," Gauff added.
"But, yeah, then obviously those break points I saved, I think I saved one earlier in the match, a bunch at the end. Yeah, honestly it just felt, the match, fast. I'm glad I honestly finished before it rained. I think it's raining right now so I'm just happy to get out of here."
Gauff was very fortunate to get the job done quickly because the rain began to fall later in the day and many players, such as Andy Murray, have to return on Saturday to complete their matches.
"Honestly, it was looking so promising when I stepped on the court. I was like, Maybe it won't rain again today," Gauff said. "I didn't really think about trying to finish until the last game of the match when I kind of saw it getting darker, then they turned on the lights, the temperature dropped. I'm from here, so I know that's like rain coming any second.
"That's when I thought about the weather. It was like, Okay, let's get it done. Especially a match like this where you're so close to finishing. I honestly didn't want to come out here tomorrow where it's supposed to rain and wait all day again to play. I was like, Let me try to get it done as quick as possible.
"I think I got a little bit more frustrated when I didn't get the double break sooner, which normally I probably wouldn't have gotten frustrated not getting a double break if I'm already up a break."