Winning Indian Wells and the Miami Masters – known as ‘the Sunshine Double’ – is one of the toughest feats in tennis.
Even an all-time great like Rafa Nadal, who has won 30 Masters 1000 tournaments, has not won both in the same year. In fact, Rafa has won at Indian Wells thrice but has lost out at Miami in five finals.
Only seven tennis players have achieved the Sunshine Double.
Jim Courier
Courier won four Grand Slam titles, with two each at French Open and Australian Open, and holds the record of being youngest ever finalist at all the four Grand Slam.
Courier completed the Sunshine double in 1991, when he beat Guy Forget at Indian Wells and David Wheaton at Miami, becoming the first to complete the Sunshine Double.
Michael Chang
Chang’s greatest feat was winning the French Open at 17. He also reached the finals of the Australian Open and US Open in 1996, where he lost to Boris Becker and Pete Sampras respectively.
In 1992, Chang won Indian Wells by defeating Andrein Chesnokov. At Miami, he defeated Sampras and Courier in straight sets, then beat Alberto Mancini in the final.
Pete Sampras
Sampras, the 14-time Grand Slam champion, had an awesome 1994, in which he won the Australian Open and Wimbledon, and also completed the Sunshine Double.
At Indian Wells he defeated Petr Korda in the final, while at Miami he defeated both Courier and Andre Agassi.
Marcelo Rios
Rios has the dubious distinction of being the only male player ever to be world number one without winning a single Grand Slam title, with only a solitary final at the Australian Open to his credit.
He was the first player from Chile to be world number one and he won five Masters titles in his career. He defeated Greg Rusedski and Andre Agassi in the finals to win at Indian Wells and Miami respectively.
Andre Agassi
Agassi was the fourth American to win the Sunshine Double.
In 2001, he defeated his great rival Sampras at Indian Wells and another American, Jan-Michael Gambill. While he has won at Indian Wells only once, he is joint highest winner at Miami, with six titles.
Interestingly, Agassi’s six wins were against six different players, namely Stefan Edberg, Sampras, Roger Federer, Gambill, Carlos Moya and Goran Ivanisevic.
Roger Federer
In 2005, Federer won easily at Indian Wells in three straight sets, against Lleyton Hewitt, in a tournament where he did not drop a single set. At Miami, 29th seed Nadal took two sets off him in the finals, before Federer staged a remarkable comeback to win in five sets.
2006 was the last year of these two tournaments played in best-of-five formats and Federer retained both titles by defeating James Blake and Ivan Ljubicic respectively, both in straight sets.
In 2017, Federer claimed the Sunshine Double for a third time by defeating Stan Wawrinka at Indian Wells and Nadal at Miami.
Novak Djokovic
Novak’s feat of four Sunshine Doubles – in 2011, 2014-2016 – is unlikely to be repeated.
At Indian Wells he has two wins over Federer, one over Rafa, and once he defeated Milos Raonic. At Miami he has two wins each against Nadal and Andy Murray, and one against Kei Nishikori and Guillermo Canas.
In 2011, one of his best years on the circuit, he defeated both Federer and Nadal at Indian Wells.
This year, giant Argentine Juan Martin del Potro won at Indian Wells and is in super form. Can he emulate the seven who won the Sunshine Double?
tsuru
Roar Rookie
I've just watched the quarter between Del Potro and Raonic. Interesting, tense finish. It does look as though Raonic is getting fit again and is getting back to good form. About the only difference in the end was the depth of DelPo's self confidence. It was something like his 15th straight win and it showed. Except for an overhead near the end of the 3rd set tie breaker, which he just pushed back, he showed little signs of stress and took his chances when he got them. It must have taken a lot out of him physically and psychologically, but he must remain favourite for the event.
Ritesh Misra
Roar Guru
Absolutely correct. very good summary. and yes, an in form player can do the double. Looks like Delpo or zverev at the moment. lets see
tsuru
Roar Rookie
Good summary Ritesh. To answer your last question first - yes he could. I'm not trying to denigrate him or anyone else who wins Miami, but the path is a good bit clearer at this moment with the injuries to Nadal, Murray, Wawrinka, Thiem and the elimination of Federer, Djokovic, Dimitrov, Goffin, Nishikori, Kyrgios (and Kokkinakis!). It's become a great chance for the young guys, but for me it's between DelPo and Zverev. I'm not sure that Raonic is fully back to his best form yet, but maybe. I think Chung, Coric, & Carreno-Busta have the kind of consistent games that will suffer from the humidity in Miami - are they fit enough to win 6 matches in the conditions? Although I just looked and it's also going to be windy - not sure how that affects the individuals. Isner & Anderson??? - they've got the strike power, but 12 titles and 4 titles in about 10 years each tells me they have trouble maintaining the highest level for a whole tournament. While I'll accept the stated view that the Sunshine Double is "one of the toughest feats in tennis," it does seem that it may be getting less difficult. Apparently since 1991 it has been achieved 12 times - that's 12 out of 27 - 44% of those years. It seems to me that as they are close together, if you're in good enough form to win Indian Wells you'll be full of confidence for Miami. And because of the scheduling of Miami - with 3 or 4 days rest after Indian Wells and only having to play every other day - it's set up for an in-form player to do the double.