After a busy Middle East swing, WTA stars will now make their way to California ahead of the Indian Wells Open.
The tournament is the third WTA 1000 event of the season, following the Qatar Open and the Dubai Tennis Championships.
It’s also the first leg of the so-called ‘Sunshine Double’, the name given to the duo of the Indian Wells Open and the Miami Open, which are placed next to each in the tennis calendar.
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To complete the Sunshine Double is to win both tournaments back-to-back, a rare feat that only 11 players in history have managed.
Seven of those players are men, while only four women have ever done it since the inception of the two tournaments.
1. Steffi Graf
Steffi Graf became the first woman in history to complete the Sunshine Double, doing so for the first time in 1994.
The Indian Wells Open was not yet a tier one (Now WTA 1000) event that year, but the German went back-to-back again at the two events in 1996.
Graf dropped just one set across both campaigns in 1996, having gone flawless at the Miami Open.
2. Kim Clijsters
In 2005, another star finally joined Graf on the list of women to complete the Sunshine Double: Kim Clijsters.
Clijsters completed the feat back in 2005, beating Lindsay Davenport in the Indian Wells Open final and Maria Sharapova in the Miami Open title bout.
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She did not drop a set in her Miami run, and at the time, she was the lowest-ranked player to win the title as the world number 38.
3. Victoria Azarenka
Victoria Azarenka became the third woman ever to do the Sunshine Double, which she managed in 2016.
Azarenka completed the first leg in remarkable fashion, beating first seed Serena Williams in the final of the Indian Wells Open.
She wrapped up the second leg by overcoming Svetlana Kuznetsova in the Miami final, having not dropped a set throughout the event.
4. Iga Swiatek
The most recent player to achieve the feat was Iga Swiatek, with the Pole winning both tournaments in America during the 2022 season.
Swiatek had won the Qatar Open earlier that season, and went on to win two more WTA 1000 events in Indian Wells and Miami.
With her triumph, she became the first player since Williams in 2013 to win three consecutive WTA 1000 titles.
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