Will Aryna Sabalenka defend her Miami Open crown and win the Sunshine Double

World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka looked every bit the part on Sunday as she overcame the loss of the first set and came back to defeat Elena Rybakina to win her first Indian Wells title.

Sabalenka has lost to Rybakina in their two most recent meetings, also in finals. The first was last November at the WTA Finals, and the second was in January at the Australian Open.

Before the match, Sabalenka vowed not to let an opportunity to win a big tennis title elude her again without doing everything possible. She withstood tremendous heat and precision play by Rybakina in the first set. In key moments, in the latter stages of the final two sets, she appeared the fresher of the two, defending a match point for Rybakina in the third set tiebreaker.

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Aryna Sabalenka had life changing moments at Indian Wells

Before she stepped on to the court for her first match, she got engaged to longtime boyfriend Georgios Frangulas. She also introduced the world to her new best friend, Ash, the puppy, named after Arthur Ashe.

Now, she is the Indian Wells champion after finishing as the finalist twice: in 2023 to Rybakina and 2025 to Mirra Andreeva.

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Can she ride the momentum into the Miami Open where she is the defending champion? Sabalenka will attempt to become the fifth WTA player to win Indian Wells and Miami in the same year and capture the Sunshine Double. The other four are Steffi Graf, who did it twice in 1994 and 1996, Kim Clijsters in 2005, Victoria Azarenka in 2016, and Iga Swiatek in 2022.

It is difficult to pull off winning two WTA 1000 level tournaments on different sides of the United States and in different climate conditions within four weeks. However, Aryna Sabalenka’s life changes and the win at Indian Wells position her well for accomplishing this impressive feat. She enjoys playing in the United States and has back-to-back US Open titles to further prove it.

In the meantime, her Indian Wells winning celebration will happen on a plane headed to Miami. She says it will include “espresso martinis and Five Guys to go.”

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