Stefanos Tsitsipas, an early adopter of tour vlogging, says the recent surge of player-made video content is a positive development for professional tennis. The 27-year-old became known for carrying a camera on the road and creating travel vlogs that documented his early years on tour.

“I’m actually quite happy that other players have started doing those (vlogs), because I think it only brings value towards our sport,” Tsitsipas said in Miami. He expressed surprise at how long it took other top players to embrace the medium. “The one thing I’m just surprised about, it’s how late it took them to get into it! I feel like when I started out, it was already more popular—early 2015 to 2018, that was the era—and it’s taken them almost a decade to get into it. So I’m actually really surprised, but it’s great.”

The wave of content creators now includes Aryna Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina, Venus Williams, Jannik Sinner, Casper Ruud, Ben Shelton, Arthur Fils and others who have launched vlogs or mini-docuseries to show life on and off the court. Productions range from glossy, sponsor-backed projects to independent efforts.

Daria Kasatkina’s What The Vlog, edited and produced by her and fiancée Natalia Zabiiako, chronicles the less glamorous side of life on the WTA Tour and features a range of player cameos. Former ATP Top 50 player Federico Coria runs a channel popular with South American fans, vlogging at ATP and Challenger events and sharing interviews and commentary. Other channels track different paths to the pro ranks: Karue Sell follows his late start at age 30, while Gladiators Tribe documents the search for first ATP points.

Tsitsipas has scaled back his own channel but still posts occasional travel videos, including footage from an offseason trip to Namibia. “I’ve seen some of Ben Shelton’s stuff, it’s amazing,” he said. “I think this is the type of content that we want to see—especially coming from a fellow tennis player. Same with Casper Ruud, he’s actually posting a lot of insightful and interesting things on his channel. These are the types of things that are important for our sport.”

In Miami, Tsitsipas advanced to the second round with a 6-1, 7-6 (4) victory over Arthur Fery, his first win since Doha in February, where he reached the quarterfinals.

Before Friday’s play at the Miami Open, three matches stand out for their intrigue and potential impact on the draw.

Amanda Anisimova vs Ajla Tomljanovic opens on Grandstand, where height won’t be a factor—both are listed at 5’11—but rankings contrast sharply. Anisimova arrives as No. 6, Tomljanovic at No. 81. Tomljanovic holds a 2-0 advantage in their head-to-head; the meetings came in Waco in 2017, when Anisimova was 16, and in San Jose in 2021, when Tomljanovic was climbing to a career-high 32. Recent form suggests the gap may be narrower than the rankings imply. Tomljanovic has won two matches in each of her last two events and pushed Jasmine Paolini to three sets in Indian Wells. Anisimova, after a brilliant 2025, was beaten with surprising ease by Victoria Mboko last week. Anisimova remains the cleaner ball-striker and more powerful hitter, but Tomljanovic already has a Miami victory and could be poised for a signature win. Winner: Tomljanovic

Naomi Osaka meets the Australian qualifier in the third show court, Butch Buchholz Arena. The Australian, 21, earned momentum in Indian Wells by winning two qualifying matches and then beating three Top 20 opponents—Alexandrova, Tauson, and Paolini—to reach the quarterfinals. In Miami she won two more qualifying matches and then defeated Sara Bejlek 1 and 0 in the first round. Osaka has strong ties to this part of Florida and boasts a 17-8 Miami record that includes a final-round appearance in 2022. She reached two wins in Indian Wells before losing to Aryna Sabalenka. Their styles should produce baseline action: both are tall, hit hard and flat, and attack the corners. Osaka’s forehand is a major weapon; Gibson’s two-handed backhand is a noted strength. Gibson brings momentum; Osaka brings experience. Winner: Osaka

Carlos Alcaraz vs Joao Fonseca is the highlight. Fonseca first saw Alcaraz in December at the Miami Invitational exhibition in this city. Fonseca, who began rising early last year, plays with a full-throttle forehand and in Indian Wells pushed Jannik Sinner to two tiebreaks after recovering from injury setbacks in 2025. Alcaraz will be the solid favorite, but how their pace and shot-making match up remains unknown. Last year here, Alcaraz lost his opener to David Goffin.

A year after appearing at No. 908 in the ATP rankings on March 17, 2025, Rafael Jodar has accelerated into the tour’s higher levels and stands poised to enter the Top 100 by the end of the Sunshine Double. The Madrid-born 19-year-old, who had been a freshman at the University of Virginia, turned professional and quickly began compiling results across the Challenger and ATP circuits.

Jodar won two qualifying matches at Hard Rock Stadium and then secured his first main-draw victory at an ATP Masters 1000 event, defeating Yannick Hanfmann, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1. Speaking during a marketing shoot at Indian Wells, Jodar said of stepping onto the sport’s biggest stages in 2026, “It’s a great opportunity to share the court with these players that I’ve been watching since I was very young. I’m super grateful for all the work I’ve been doing these past seasons and years. Let’s take this and try to maximize the opportunity to give my best tennis level.”

His ascent owes much to a breakout 2025 on the ATP Challenger Tour. While ranked outside the Top 900, he reached the semifinals at Morelos in April and went on to capture three hard-court titles, including one on his college campus in Charlottesville, alongside four additional semifinal appearances. “All those matches helped me a lot, to get a lot of experience. I learned a lot from the matches, even the ones that didn’t go the way I wanted,” he said. “At the end of the day, playing against different types of games and opponents is what matters.”

Jodar earned one of eight spots at December’s NexGen ATP Finals in Jeddah and opted to forgo his remaining NCAA eligibility before the new year. He opened 2026 with a runner-up finish at the Canberra Challenger, advanced through three Australian Open qualifying rounds and claimed his first major match win over Rei Sakamoto in a fifth set. Early-season ATP victories followed at Delray Beach (250) and Acapulco (500) in February as he continued his climb.

Asked about rankings, Jodar was measured. “It would be nice to be in the Top 100 but it’s not a thing that is one of the main goals this year. The main goal is to improve, to get better every day,” he said.

Carlos Alcaraz, who worked with Jodar at the 2024 Davis Cup Finals in Malaga when Jodar served as a hitting partner, praised his temperament and game. “I really like the way that he plays. No fear. Having no respect to anybody when he step in the court,” Alcaraz said. “Off the court he’s a really nice guy. Have huge respect to everybody who’s in the tour. But once he step in the court, he believes in himself and he believes he can beat anybody.

“So that’s what I like the most (about) him. For me, it’s not surprising at all how good he’s doing in the tour and how far he’s breaking in the tour and being close to the Top 100.”

Reflecting on that relationship as our conversation ended, Jodar added, “He’s super close, a very good human being. I’m very happy with the way he treats the other Spanish players.”