What is the Sunshine Double
A Sunshine Double in tennis is the term for when a players wins the Indian Wells and Miami Masters in the same year. It is called Sunshine Double because of the hot conditions in which the tournaments are held.
The Indian Wells and Miami Masters are a part of the ATP Masters 1000 and WTA 1000, which is the highest category of non-grand slam tournaments.
Both competitions are usually held in March or early April with the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells taking place first. The tournament generally starts during early or mid-March and is followed by the Miami Masters/Miami Open in WTA.
The Indian Wells Masters/Indian Wells Open started in 1974 and used to be held in a number of different cities in the United States like Tucson, Rancho Mirage and La Quinta, before being shifted to Indian Wells, California in 1987. The venue for the tournament is the Indian Wells Tennis Garden which has two stadiums, one with a capacity of 16,100 and the other with a capacity of 8000.
The Miami Masters started in 1985 as the Lipton International players championship and was initially held in Delray Beach and Boca Beach in Florida. From 1987-2018, the tournament took place in Biscayne Beach before moving to Miami Gardens in 2019. The venue for the competition is the Hard Rock Stadium which has a capacity of 14,000.
Which players have completed the Sunshine Double?
TIll date, ten players have completed the Sunshine Double. The first to do so was Jim Courier in 1991 when he beat Guy Forget and David Wheaton in both finals. The following year, Michael Chang completed the double by beating Andrei Chesnokov in the Indian Wells final and Alberto Mancini in the Miami final.
Pete Sampras and Steffi Graf both completed the Sunshine Double in 1994 with the latter attaining the feat in 1996 as well. Chile’s Marcelo Rios is the only South American player till date to have completed the double.
The likes of Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, Kim Clijsters, Novak Djokovic and Victoria Azarenka have completed the Sunshine Double in the 21st century. Djokovic has completed the double four times which is more than any other player.
| Player | Year |
| Jim Courier | 1991 |
| Michael Chang | 1992 |
| Pete Sampras | 1994 |
| Steffi Graf | 1996 |
| Marcelo Rios | 1998 |
| Andre Agassi | 2001 |
| Roger Federer | 2005, 2006, 2017 |
| Kim Clijsters | 2005 |
| Novak Djokovic | 2011, 2014, 2015, 2016 |
| Victoria Azarenka | 2016 |
There are a number of top players who have failed to complete the Sunshine Double despite coming close on a few occasions. Rafael Nadal reached the final of both tournaments in 2011 but was beaten by Djokovic.
Stefan Edberg won the 1990 Indian Wells Masters by beating Andre Agassi in the final. However, he lost to the American in the final of that year’s Miami Masters. Monica Seles won the Miami Open in 1991 but lost to Martina Navratilova in the Indian Wells final that year.
Serena Williams also failed to complete the Sunshine Double and the closest she came to accomplishing the feat was back in 1999 when she won the Indian Wells Open but lost in the final of the Miami Open to her sister Venus.
