The Miami Open has been recognised as one of tennis’ most important events in recent years, as part of a fabled two-tournament gauntlet that few have ever won consecutively.
Dubbed the ‘Sunshine Double’, to win both Indian Wells and the Miami Open in the same year is a feat that only a handful of names can boast of having completed.
However, there can only ever be one person to have been the first to achieve it.
Unsurprisingly, this history-maker did so without the need for fortune, as Jim Courier went on to win four Grand Slam titles following his Sunshine Double success.
When Jim Courier won Indian Wells and the Miami Open in the same year
It was 1991, and Boris Becker had just dethroned the two-time defending Australian Open champion, Ivan Lendl, in the final.
Many expected the German to go on and dominate, and whilst he did impress at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, he failed to make his mark on the Sunshine Double.
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Instead, it was a 20-year-old Courier who announced himself as a true threat for the sport’s elite titles, beating Guy Forget in the final of Indian Wells before following that up with a title in Miami too.
There, the American capitalised on a favourable draw and many of the top seeds exiting early, defeating an unseeded David Wheaton in the final.
This saw Courier become the first player, male or female, to complete the Sunshine Double.
Since then, a further six men and four women have mimicked his impressive feat.
However, he was not the first man to ever win the Miami Open. That record belongs to another.
How many other players have won the Sunshine Double?
The next to win the Sunshine Double was actually Michael Chang, who managed it the very next year.
Then, in 1994, we saw both Pete Sampras and Steffi Graf accomplish it too, with the latter winning the first of two Sunshine Doubles she accomplished in her career.
Other notable winners from the 90s were Marcelo Rios and Andre Agassi, before Roger Federer, Kim Clijsters and Victoria Azarenka all won the two events during the 2000s.
The Swiss superstar actually won it three times, whilst Novak Djokovic, who won his first Sunshine Double in 2011, holds the record with four back-to-back titles.
Iga Świątek is the latest to have succeeded in this feat, as recently as 2022.
