Following the Indian Wells Open, it is the second event of the "Sunshine Double" — a series of two elite, consecutive hard court tournaments in the United States in early spring.

[4] The tournament officially was founded by former player Butch Buchholz who was executive director of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in the 1980s.

His original aim was to make the event the first major tournament of the year (the Australian Open was held in December at that time), and he dubbed it the "Winter Wimbledon".

In 1982 the earlier WCT Gold Coast Cup tournament was played at Delray Beach that was usually held end of January early February.

After its successful year there, Merrett Stierheim, Dade County manager and Women's Tennis Association (WTA) president, helped Buchholz move the tournament to its long-term home in Key Biscayne from 1987.

[7] In 2004, the Indian Wells Masters also expanded to a multi-week 96 player field, and since then, the two events have been colloquially termed the "Sunshine Double".

[8][9] The aging Crandon Park facility had been criticized as the slowest hard court on the tour, subjecting players to endless grinding rallies in extreme heat and humidity.

[10] The land on which the Crandon Park facility stands had been donated to Miami-Dade County by the Matheson family in 1992 under a stipulation that only one stadium could be built on it.

The tournament organizers proposed a $50 million upgrade of Crandon Park that would have added several permanent stadiums, and the family responded with a lawsuit.

[14][15] The 2020 Miami Open was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic; the tournament was held with limited attendance, and Hard Rock Stadium proper was therefore not used.

During its inaugural playing in 1985, the tournament was known as the Lipton International Players Championships and it was a premier event of the Grand Prix Tennis Tour.