Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka extended her stay at the number one spot in the WTA rankings after she defeated Coco Gauff in the summit clash of the Miami Open 2026. She re-established herself as one of the best tennis players in the world, defeating Gauff across three sets to defend her Miami Open title.
She became the fifth women’s player in history to complete the ‘Sunshine double’, which means winning the Indian Wells and Miami titles in the same season. Victoria Azarenka, Iga Swiatek, Kim Clijsters, and Steffi Graf are the other four players to achieve the feat.
As for the rankings, despite losing the final against Sabalenka, Gauff has overtaken Iga Swiatek in the WTA rankings and will be moving into third when the rankings are updated next.
Speaking of the game, Guaff did put up a good fight, but Sabalenka proved to be too much to handle for her. The Bealursian star registered a 6-2 4-6 6-3 victory to claim the title.
Sabalenka talked about her performance and schedule after the win
Having registered the victory, Sabalenka came forward and talked about how proud of herself she was to have put in the work to stay consistent and keep winning.
“I haven’t had a moment to stop, look back and realise what’s happened in the past months. I’m so proud of the work we’ve done and the fight I was able to bring on the court. Coco will fight for every opportunity and she played incredibly, but I was mentally strong. I knew I was doing everything right and it was just a matter of a few points,” Sabalenka told SkySports.
“We were chatting a lot about that final. We were trying to dig deep and find the reason why I’m letting these finals get too much in my head and why I’m letting myself get too emotional,” she added.
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