Aryna Sabalenka beats Coco Gauff in Miami final, completes ‘Sunshine Double’

MIAMI – Aryna Sabalenka won her second straight Miami Open title on March 28, beating Coco Gauff 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 to complete a “Sunshine Double” Indian Wells-Miami sweep.

The world No. 1 from Belarus, fresh off her first triumph in the California desert, became the fifth woman – and the first since Iga Swiatek in 2022 – to win both of the elite early-season hard-court WTA 1000 titles.

“It means a lot,” Sabalenka said after joining Poland’s Swiatek, German great Steffi Graf, Belgian Kim Clijsters and fellow Belarusian Victoria Azarenka on the list of women to win both titles in the same year. “My goal always been to put my name in the history and I just did it.”

Sabalenka underscored her WTA dominance in a season in which her only defeat was her Australian Open final loss to Elena Rybakina, whom she went on to beat in the Indian Wells title match and in the semi-finals here.

She handed Gauff her first career defeat in a hard-court final.

The American had won her first nine, including a triumph over Sabalenka in the 2023 US Open championship match.

Gauff had also beaten the Belarusian for the title on the red clay of Roland Garros in 2025.

So Sabalenka said she was not surprised to see Gauff dig in, even after the Belarusian pocketed the first set with a ruthless display of power and precision.

She broke Gauff to open the match and, after Gauff saved three break points in a gritty fifth game, broke the American again in the seventh. She then served it out in 37 minutes.

In a tense second set, Gauff’s first break-point chance – from a blistering backhand passing winner in the second game – sparked a jubilant reaction from the crowd at Hard Rock Stadium, just about an hour away from her Delray Beach home.

But Gauff could not convert, slamming a forehand into the net on the next point as Sabalenka held.

It needed another gutsy hold from Gauff to keep it on serve in the fifth game.

Up 40-0, she wasted three game points with a pair of errors off the ground and a double fault, then had to save a break point before taking the game.

But Gauff was finding more depth on her returns and broke Sabalenka for the first time to take the second set.

“I knew that she’s going to try her very best to fight in this match,” Sabalenka said.

“I was just trying to keep a positive mindset going into the third set. I’m super happy how well I handled my emotions, how well I stayed focused.”

And the third set, again, was virtually all Sabalenka.

She broke to open the final frame and broke again when Gauff sailed a backhand long on Sabalenka’s first match point.

“What a month,” said Sabalenka, who along with two prestigious titles acquired a new puppy and got engaged to boyfriend Georgios Frangulis.

Gauff was also feeling grateful after a rocky March that saw her withdraw from her third-round match at Indian Wells with a nerve issue that caused “scary” pain in her left arm.

“I feel like I’m nowhere near my peak of my tennis, so I think it gives me comfort a little bit playing these tournaments and having great results,” she said. AFP