Miami Open organisers have been forced into drastic action after weather disruptions wreaked havoc during the first couple of days of action. On Wednesday, all 37 matches at the tournament were cancelled after a continuous downpour made the conditions unsafe.

It has caused a bit of a headache for the event organisers, given it has come during the busiest part of the tournament’s schedule. As such, they have opted to ramp up the chaos by playing matches across 10 courts at the Miami complex, with 48 matches in total.

Matches on the stadium courts will begin at midday local time (4pm GMT), on Grandstand while on Buccholz and Court 1 it’s 11am local time (3pm GMT). Meanwhile, on the other courts, the action gets underway at 10am local time (2pm GMT). Among the big names in action across Thursday’s programme are Iga Swiatek, Mirra Andreeva, Joao Fonseca and Grigor Dimitrov.

A statement cancelling the matches on Wednesday read: “Session 3 & 4 on March 18 have been cancelled. All matches will be rescheduled. Impacted ticket holders will receive an email with next steps. Campus will remain open until 8.30pm.”

Meanwhile, Tennis Channel reporter Chanda Rubin said: “We are back live with you from Miami, and we wish we had better pictures to show you, but it has been raining all day long.

“Fans have been waiting patiently, here’s a look at the current sky above the Hard Rock Stadium. We were supposed to be working the last hour or so, last 30 minutes or so, but it’s just not to be. As you can see, all of the courts are wet, the rain has continued. They have been drying them throughout the day, but right now, we are waiting for the rain to stop.”

It’s been a week of disruptions in Miami, as before the tournament got underway, 20 players from across the men’s and women’s singles draw withdrew from the event. They included Novak Djokovic, Emma Raducanu and Holger Rune.

Djokovic had gone toe-to-toe in a battle with Jack Draper at Indian Wells, where the Brit ran out a 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(5) winner. Djokovic claimed he was exhausted after the contest, before withdrawing from the second half of the Sunshine Double later that week.