Frenchy Moise Kouame, 17, and legend Venus Williams, 45, headline Miami Open wild cards
At 17, Moise Kouame is about to make his Masters 1000 debut. At 45, Venus Williams is returning for her 23rd appearance at the tournament she has called home since 1997. Together, they bookend a Miami Open wild card field that is as much a celebration of what tennis has been as it is a … Continued
Moise Kouame, portrait, 2026 | © JB Autissier, Occitanie Open
At 17, Moise Kouame is about to make his Masters 1000 debut. At 45, Venus Williams is returning for her 23rd appearance at the tournament she has called home since 1997. Together, they bookend a Miami Open wild card field that is as much a celebration of what tennis has been as it is a preview of what it is becoming.
The Miami Open, which runs March 15-29 at Hard Rock Stadium, has awarded wild cards to five men and eight women for the main draw, with qualifying beginning this weekend ahead of first-round action on March 17.
Men : Kouame, Blanch, Damm & others
On the men’s side, the story belongs to the teenagers. Moise Kouame, a Paris-born Frenchman who only turned 17 on March 6, arrives in Miami having already won two ITF titles this season and having come through qualifying to make his ATP Tour main draw debut in Montpellier, where he pushed a Top 100 opponent to three sets. Ranked around No. 393 on the ATP Tour, he is the rawest of the five men handed an invitation — and perhaps the one with the most to prove.
His fellow teenage wild card recipients are Darwin Blanch of the United States, 18, and Japan’s Rei Sakamoto, 19. Blanch, ranked around No. 287, became the youngest American to win an ATP Tour match since Frances Tiafoe in 2015 when he defeated Borna Coric in Winston-Salem last year, and just this week beat world No. 52 Terence Atmane in Phoenix for the best win of his career.
Sakamoto, who sits around No. 175 after reaching a career high of No. 157 in February, won three Challenger titles in 2025 and qualified for the Miami main draw last year, giving him a familiarity with the event his younger peers will lack.
Rounding out the men’s wild cards are two players who know what it means to make history. Martin Damm, 22, is a fast-rising American who reached his first ATP Tour semifinal as a qualifier in Montpellier last month, climbing to a career high of around No. 125 in the process.
Wu Yibing, 26, carries the distinction of being the first Chinese player in the Open Era to win an ATP title, having done so in Dallas in 2023, when he also reached the Hangzhou semifinals by upsetting Daniil Medvedev. He won the UTS Los Angeles title the same year. Yibung Wu is currently working his way back from a ranking outside the Top 100 following injury.
WOMEN : Venus still there, Stephens and Brady in
On the women’s side, the headline writes itself. Venus Williams, a seven-time Grand Slam champion and former world No. 1, returns to the tournament she won in 1998, 1999 and 2001, arriving for what will be her 111th WTA 1000-level event — the fifth most appearances at that level in history. Currently ranked around No. 554, she has yet to win a match in 2026 but has never needed much by way of expectations to produce magic in Miami.
She will be joined by fellow former champion Sloane Stephens, who claimed this title in 2018 and also reached the Roland-Garros and WTA Finals finals the same year. The 32-year-old American, ranked around No. 780 and continuing her comeback from a serious 2025 injury layoff, is among eight wild card recipients overall but stands as the second-most decorated name in the field.
The American contingent does not stop there. Ashlyn Krueger, 21 and ranked around No. 100, made the Round of 16 here last year with victories over Elena Rybakina and Leylah Fernandez, the first Top 10 win of her career.
Taylor Townsend, 29, reached her first WTA singles final in Austin earlier this month and has made the third round in Miami in back-to-back years, even if she remains better known as a two-time Grand Slam doubles champion and former world doubles No. 1. Jennifer Brady, 28, a 2021 Australian Open finalist, returned to the WTA Tour this year following an injury absence stretching back to 2023 and will be making her fifth Miami appearance.
Three teenagers complete the women’s field. Lilli Tagger of Austria, who turned 18 last month, won last year’s Roland Garros junior title and reached her first WTA senior final in the closing week of the 2025 season. Australia’s Emerson Jones, 17, is a former junior world No. 1 who captured her fourth career ITF title in February. Czech Darja Vidmanova, 22, built one of the more decorated college careers of recent years at the University of Georgia, winning the full NCAA triple crown of team, singles and doubles titles before making a rapid transition to the professional ranks.
The women’s final is scheduled for March 28. The men’s title match follows on March 29.
