Miami Open 2024: Iga Swiatek eyes historic sunshine double, aims to join tennis royalty

World No. 1 seeks second Miami Open title to cement dominant season

World No. 1, Iga Swiatek, has a good opportunity to win the ‘Sunshine Double’ at the Miami Open 2024. Doing so would mean she repeats the Sunshine Double sweep of 2022. The Pole won the Indian Wells and Miami Open trophies that year, becoming the first woman since Steffi Graf in 1996 to achieve this feat.

Should Swiatek secure the Miami Open trophy, she will become only the fourth player, male or female, to win the Sunshine Double multiple times. She will join an elite club, keeping company with tennis greats Steffi Graf, Roger Federer, and Novak Djokovic.

Graf secured the Sunshine Double twice (1994, 1996) and was also the champion at Miami for three consecutive years between 1994 and 1996. Roger Federer achieved this in 2005 and 2017. Djokovic leads the pack with four Sunshine Doubles (2011, 2014, 2015, 2016). Federer has won in Miami four times, while Djokovic has won six times.

The Polish star is on a roll this season and is only a few weeks shy of spending 100 weeks as World No. 1. She is currently on 94 weeks and will reach 96 weeks after Miami. Swiatek could reach the 100-week mark in the third week of April.

Last week, she secured her second Indian Wells title with a straight-set win and a bagel against Maria Sakkari, 6-4, 6-0.

Iga Swiatek became the World No. 1 following her victory at Miami in 2022. She became the youngest player at 20 years, 308 days to make her No. 1 debut, following Caroline Wozniacki’s rise to the top spot in 2010 at 20 years and 92 days.

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When Swiatek lifted the French Open trophy at Roland Garros in 2020, she became the first Pole – man or woman, to win a Grand Slam event.

Swiatek begins her title quest at Miami later today against the Italian, Camila Giorgi. Maria Sakkari (8), Jelena Ostapenko (9), and Qinwen Zheng (7) have already booked second-round spots in the event, which began this week.

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