Miami Open founder Buchholz honored on tournament’s 40th anniversary

 Martina Navratilova, Butch Buchholz and Tim Mayotte

By Harvey Fialkov

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla.- When Butch Buchholz was barnstorming around the country playing tennis for gas money and beer he began dreaming of creating a huge tournament for the players, similar to the Professional Golf Association’s The Players Championship.

Years later, he added women to the mix and thus begat The Lipton International Players Championships which had more name changes than Elizabeth Taylor but is now simply the Miami Open.

The first tournament was held in Delray Beach at Laver’s International Tennis Resort. No, it wasn’t named for Rod Laver, the legendary Australian champion, but rather for a distant cousin Ian Laver.

“I can’t believe it’s been 40 years,’’ said Buchholz, who along with the tournament’s first champions Tim Mayotte, ‘The Springfield Rifle,’ and the iconic Martina Navratilova were honored on Stadium Court before the Wednesday night match won by three-time Miami Open champion Victoria Azarenka, 6-3, 6-1 over Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine.

“I felt the players really should have their own big event sort of copying the PGA Players Championship which they’re in their 51^st year. We’ve done 40! I was a little brave. I told the political [leaders in Dade] I’m going to put together a 15-year deal and I’ll build a stadium. I would get the women together, but I wasn’t sure how I’d build it.”

It became the first tournament outside the four Grand Slam tournaments where the men and women play simultaneously. Of the nine Masters 1000 tournaments, seven are now co-ed tournaments.

Mayotte said that it was so cold during the final that he wore a full sweatsuit and that there was one drunk fan in the stands.

“There was a 50 mile per-hour wind, and I would hit the ball outside of the alley and it would come in,’’ laughed Mayotte, 64, who won seven matches, including a victory over a young Boris Becker before edging Scott Davis in a five-set marathon under the lights. “One guy in the crowd sitting there and every time I’d win a point, he was so drunk, he’d [yell], ‘Way to go Mayonnaise.”

Navratilova couldn’t remember her final match with Evert, “because there have been too many, but she prevailed 6-2, 6-4 to break the deadlock in their career meetings, going up 32-31. She would eventually lead their series 43-37.

“I just remember the wind more than the cold because I hate playing in the wind,’’ Navratilova, on hand to commentate for Tennis Channel. She also won the doubles with Gigi Fernandez as well as the mixed doubles.

The nomadic tournament moved to the Boca West Resort where Ivan Lendl and Evert prevailed. Finally, the vagabond event found its third home on the idyllic island of Key Biscayne in 1987. It was simply known as The Lipton.

“We go over the Rickenbacker Bridge and then we stop at this [garbage] dump,’’ said Buchholz, 84. “I’m looking across the street and there’s 700 parking spots and the beach. Then I see a dead dog, all sorts of [busted] refrigerators and cars. I turned around and said, “This is perfect.”

For decades the tournament was known as the unofficial fifth Grand Slam as South Americans flocked to the tournament. However, the Matheson family, owners of the land, preferred a garbage dump to a prestigious tennis tournament that brought in millions of dollars to the island and nearby Miami, so they wouldn’t allow Buchholz and his brother Cliff to improve the facility and build another stadium to keep up with Indian Wells.

That’s when Dolphins billionaire owner Stephen M. Ross saved the tournament by creating a world-class event on the grounds of Hard Rock Stadium, home of his football team.