It’s a once-in-a-decade sort of expertise. The Sunshine Double is a uncommon feat in males’s tennis and girls’s tennis, with solely 5 ladies and eight males finishing the duty.
Even rarer? Two in a single season.
With the completion of Aryna Sabalenka’s title run on Saturday in Miami (she defeated Coco Gauff, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3), and Jannik Sinner’s victory over Jiri Lehecka on Sunday, we’ve seen the fourth incidence of a uncommon Sunshine double-double.
Sabalenka and Sinner, coincidentally, every stretched her Miami Open profitable streak to 12 once they accomplished their title runs this weekend.
Two of the very best hardcourt gamers of their technology – and tennis historical past if we’re being honest – completed the onerous court docket swing by rising to the second, assembly expectations and proving that on onerous courts, they’re head and shoulders above the remainder.
Seasons with A number of Sunshine Double Winners
If you’re questioning about correlation between the Sunshine Double and the US Open, it’s attention-grabbing to notice that the winners of the Sunshine Double don’t at all times dominate the onerous courts on the finish of the season. In 1994 Pete Sampras and Steffi Graf received the double, however neither one claimed the title on the US Open.
In 2005 Roger Federer and Kim Clijsters received the double and the US Open, and in 2016 Novak Djokovic and Victoria Azarenka swept the Sunshine Double however did not win titles on the US Open.
Seven of the earlier Sunshine Double winners have gone on to win the US Open later that season.
