MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — After nine days of glorious weather, rain interrupted the Miami Open on Tuesday.

Fourth-round men’s play was suspended shortly after 2 p.m. with American Sebastian Korda serving at 4-3 in the final set against 38-year-old Frenchman Gael Monfils on Stadium Court and Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina leading Norwegian Casper Ruud 6-4, 5-1 on the Grandstand.

The rain eventually stopped, courts were dried with blowers, soggy fans returned to their seats and some matches resumed at 5:30 p.m.

Cerundolo closed out the victory 6-4, 6-2 to move on to the quarterfinals, where he will face No. 14 seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria.

The Korda-Monfils match took longer to resume because the Stadium Court is inside Hard Rock Stadium and sits above the grass football field, so it remained moist and a bit slippery. When the chair umpire explained that to the fans, who had been waiting for hours, they booed.

But before long, Korda picked up where he left off and finished the match 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. Among those cheering from the stands were his father, Petr Korda, the 1998 Australian Open champion, and his older sister, Nelly, who reached No. 1 in women’s golf in 2021.

Six-time champion Novak Djokovic eliminated Lorenzo Musetti 6-2, 6-2 to reach his eighth Miami quarterfinal and first since winning the 2016 title.

“Miami is always good to me,” Djokovic said on the court after the victory. “It always comes at the right time of the season for me and brings the right energy. The tournament has so much history and an international crowd, a lot of people from South America who love their tennis. I try to thrive on that energy.”

Djokovic, the 37-year-old Serb, is playing in Miami for the first time since 2019 and arrived determined to get back on track after three consecutive losses, his worst stretch since 2018. He was coming off a shocking 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 loss to 85th-ranked Botic Van De Zandschulp in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif.

“I guess the consistency of the level of tennis nowadays for me is more challenging than it was 10 years ago, five years ago,” Djokovic said after his win Tuesday. “I know that’s definitely not due to lack of time spent on the practice court or the gym, because I still keep the same dedication. It’s just a bit more challenging for me to maintain the level.

“But, when I’m playing the way I played in all three matches here, particularly [Tuesday], I’m enjoying myself and I still prove to myself and others that I can play at the highest level.”

The second night match between top seed Alexander Zverev and Arthur Fils was postponed until Wednesday due to the delay as was the doubles match between top seeded Marcelo Arevalo (El Salvador)/Mate Pavic (Croatia) and Argentine duo Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni.

On the women’s side, a doubles match between Taylor Townsend (USA)/Katerina Siniakova (Czech Republic) and Caroline Dolehide (USA)/Storm Hunter (Australia) was suspended with Townsend/Siniakova ahead 7-5, 1-1. They held on to win 7-5, 6-2.

Sixth seeded Italian Jasmine Paolini and Magda Linette of Poland waited all afternoon for the start of their quarterfinal. Linette, coming off a big upset of No. 3 Coco Gauff, lost to Paolini 6-3, 6-2. Top seed Aryna Sabalenka won the Stadium Court night match 6-2, 7-5 against No. 9 Qinwen of China.

“It was an incredible level from both of us, and I’m super happy to get this win,” Sabalenka said. “And what an atmosphere! I’m proud of the way I handled the pressure in the second set, the way I handled all the emotions.”

Two players managed to book their spots in the quarterfinals before the rain delay.

Jakub Mensik, the 19-year-old from the Czech Republic, did so without striking a ball. He advanced by walkover after his opponent and countryman Tomas Machac withdrew due to illness.

Mensik will now take on Zverev or Fils in the quarterfinal. He is the sixth teenager to reach the Miami quarterfinals since 2010, joining Zverev, Denis Shapovalov, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. He is ranked No. 46 and will break into the Top 35 if he reaches the semi-finals.

The other player who earned a quarterfinal berth was Dimitrov. The Bulgarian was a finalist last year before losing to Sinner and is once again marching through the bracket without much attention.

Dimitrov, recovered from a hip injury, defeated American Brandon Nakashima 6-4, 7-5.

The matchup between Korda and Monfils was one of the most interesting of this round.

Korda is the 24-year-old son of Petr, who reached No. 2 in the world. Sebastian achieved a career-high ranking of No. 15 in August 2024. The Kordas are the only father-son duo to rank inside the Top 20 since rankings began in 1973.

Petr played the Miami tournament on Key Biscayne 11 times from 1988 to 1999 and reached the semifinals in 1993 after beating Stefan Edberg in the quarters.

“My dad still calls it the Lipton,” Korda said, smiling. “He played here a ton. This was the first tournament I ever went to as a young kid. My first memory from tennis was actually from here because my dad coached Radek Stepanek and he played Bobby Reynolds and I thought the score was the coolest thing, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. That was my first real memory in tennis and that stuck with me.”

Monfils, who is 38 years and six months old, was aiming to become the oldest player to reach an ATP Masters 1000 quarterfinal since 1990. The oldest until now was Roger Federer, who reached the quarters at Shanghai in 2019 at 38 years, two months. Federer also was a quarterfinalist in Rome and Madrid in 2019 at 37 years, nine months.

Brazilian teenager Joao Fonseca and his passionate, yellow-clad fans electrified Stadium Court Monday night as the unseeded 18-year-old battled for two and a half hours but fell short to No. 10 seed Alex De Minaur of Australia, 5-7, 7-5, 6-3.

The crowd erupted every time Fonseca won a point, serenaded him with chants of “Joao! Fonseca!” and made so much noise that the chair umpire switched to Portuguese and repeatedly pleaded “Obrigado” (Thank You) to get the fans to quiet down.

“I felt like I was in Brazil, so it was super cool,” Fonseca said. “I really liked the tournament, probably one of my favorites now. People were calling, `Joao Fonseca!’ and I was just enjoying the moment.”

After the match, De Minaur wrote “RIO OPEN” with a smiley face on the camera lens.

“Mentally, I was ready for this match,” De Minaur said. “I knew that not only was I going to play an incredible talent playing with immense confidence right now and nothing to lose, but also playing an incredible crowd, which was going to be on his side from the very first point to the last, so I knew it was going to be a very dangerous combo.

“The only option for me was to keep my head down, stay positive, fight ‘til the end and ultimately show what I can do.”

Although he did not like fans making noise between serves, De Minaur relished the experience of playing in front of the boisterous crowd.

“I’m not going to get too many chances to play in such an atmosphere like that one, and it was a lot of fun,” he said.

De Minaur is tied with Felix Auger-Aliassime for most wins on tour this season (17). He is 16-1 against players outside the Top 30 this season.

Fonseca was the youngest player to reach the Miami Open third round since Juan Martin Del Potro in 2007. He is 3-3 against Top 20 players. He had committed to play college tennis at the University of Virginia, but in February 2024, after reaching the quarterfinals of the Rio Open at age 17, he decided to turn pro.

Asked his impressions of Fonseca, De Minaur said: “He’s an incredible talent. He’s got firepower from both sides. He’s got an incredible serve. Super dangerous player, playing with a lot of confidence. And he’s still so young, so he’s only going to get better and make it harder for us guys on tour.”

De Minaur wound up losing his fourth round match Tuesday against Matteo Berrettini 6-3, 7-6 (9-7).

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