What is a Sunshine Double in Tennis and which players have achieved it?

Here’s everything you need to know about the Tennis stars who have won the prestigious Sunshine Double – what is it exactly?

The Indian Wells Masters and the Miami Open are together known as the ‘Sunshine Double’. Both are hard-court events of the Masters 1000 category that take place in the United States during the initial months of the season. Only a very few players have won the prestigious ‘Sunshine Double’ till date.

Novak Djokovic has achieved the Sunshine Double highest number of times on the ATP tour – 2011, 2014, 2015, 2016. Federer (3) is next on the list followed by Agassi, Rios, Sampras, Chang, Courier – all of whom have achieved this feat once each. When it comes to the women’s category, Steffi Graf has won it twice – 1994 and 1996. Kim Clijsters, Victoria Azarenka and most recently Iga Swiatek (in 2022) have achieved this feat once.

Fans react to the elite list of stars who have achieved the Sunshine Double

Elena Rybakina lost the final of the Miami Open and failed to achieve the ‘Sunshine Double’ having earlier won the Indian Wells Masters. Let us take a look at how fans reacted after discussions surrounding the ‘Sunshine Double’ increased rapidly on social media following her loss.

“Wow, what a list of elite tennis players who have accomplished the rare Sunshine Double feat! Djokovic and Federer leading the pack with multiple wins, while Agassi, Sampras, and Graf also make their mark in history. Congrats to all”, wrote a fan.

“Unfortunately, both “Oh Boy” Alcaraz & Rybakina failed to achieve that unique honour. Sinner surprised Alcaraz in semis & oldie Kvitova got the better of Rybakina in the final”, tweeted another fan.

“It is a shame that Serena’s name isn’t here. She surely would have won at least a couple of Sunshine Doubles, but she was justified in never wanting to play Indian Wells after the ’99 racist debacle”, read a tweet.

“Iga was only 20 years old, and also won the Doha WTA 1000 tournament right before Indian Wells, so kind of a Sunshine Triple”, stated another user.

Another fan wrote: “Only Graf, Sampras, Agassi, Roger x 2 and Nole x 3 achieved AO + Sunshine Double.”

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