Aryna Sabalenka confirmed her status as the player to beat on hard courts Saturday, beating Coco Gauff 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 in the Miami Open final to defend her title and complete the Sunshine Double. The world No. 1 became the first woman since Iga Swiatek in 2022 to win Indian Wells and Miami in the same season, and only the fifth to do it in the Open Era.
For much of the afternoon, Sabalenka looked like she was going to run away with it. She took the opening set 6-2 with clean, aggressive ball-striking and steady pressure on Gauff’s serve, putting herself in control early against a player appearing in her first Miami Open final.
The match lasted 2 hours and 9 minutes, but the tone of the opening stretch was set by Sabalenka’s ability to take time away and dictate from the baseline.
Gauff, though, made this a real final. Backed by the home crowd, the American settled in during the second set, defended better, extended rallies, and found a way to disrupt Sabalenka’s first-strike rhythm. She took the set 6-4 and forced the match into a decider, turning what had looked like a straightforward afternoon into the kind of tense, momentum-swinging championship match both players are now used to playing.
The third set was where Sabalenka showed why she has been so hard to stop this season. After losing the second, she reset quickly, broke early, and regained control with her serve and depth off the ground. She won 73 percent of her first-serve points and faced only two break points in the match, numbers that underline how difficult she was to pressure even in a final that tightened late.
The win gave Sabalenka a second straight Miami Open title and another major marker in what is shaping up to be a dominant 2026 campaign. Reuters reported that she improved to 23-1 on the season, with her only loss coming in the Australian Open final.
The title as another sign of her control over the WTA’s biggest hard-court events, especially after arriving in South Florida fresh off her Indian Wells triumph.
For Gauff, there was disappointment, but also plenty to build on. She reached her first Miami Open final, pushed the top-ranked player in the world to three sets, and showed once again that the Sabalenka-Gauff matchup has become one of the WTA Tour’s most compelling rivalries. Her ability to shift gears after a rough first set gave the final shape and tension, even if Sabalenka ultimately had the cleaner answers in the biggest moments.
From a bigger tennis perspective, Sabalenka’s latest title matters because it was not just about power. She handled momentum swings, a loud crowd, and a dangerous opponent who kept forcing her to play one extra ball. That combination of force and composure is what separates title contenders from the player everyone else is chasing.
In Miami, Sabalenka was both.
