It’s a feat that isn’t within everyone’s grasp. Few players can claim to have achieved one of the toughest feats on the tennis planet: the Sunshine Double.
It consists of winning the Indian Wells and Miami titles in the same season. Only 11 players have ever been able to do this, two of them more than once – Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.
American Jim Courier was the first player to win the famous Sunshine Double, in 1991. Then ranked 26th in the world before arriving in California, he beat Guy Forget in five sets in the final of the Indian Wells Masters 1000, before doing the double a few days later in the Miami final, where he defeated David Wheaton.
It was an achievement that launched his career. A few months later, Courier won his first Grand Slam title at Roland-Garros, beating Andre Agassi in the final. He also reached the final of the US Open, where he lost to Stefan Edberg.
One year after Jim Courier’s feat, another American did it again. Michael Chang, 20, became the second player in history to complete the Sunshine Double. While he managed to win Indian Wells by taking advantage of a favourable draw (he didn’t face a single member of the Top 20),
he subsequently confirmed that this was no accident by winning the Miami Masters 1000 after beating Pete Sampras and Courier, before dominating Alberto Mancini in the final.World No 1 and winner of the last three Grand Slam tournaments, Pete Sampras was one of the big favourites going into the 1994 American tour.
And the American didn’t disappoint, far from it. He reached the final of the Indian Wells tournament, losing just one set on the way, in the semi-final to Edberg. Down two sets to one in the final against Petr Korda, Sampras found the resources to turn things around and claim victory.
A few days later in Miami, he became the third player in history to complete the Sunshine Double after a three-set victory over arch-rival Andre Agassi in the final. He went on to win both tournaments again, but never in the same year.
While three men had already achieved the Sunshine Double, no woman had managed it until Steffi Graf, the undisputed world No 1, corrected this statistic. The German even went one better, achieving this fabulous feat on two occasions, a first in the history of tennnis.
In 1994, Graf beat Amanda Coetzer in the Indian Wells final and Natasha Zvereva in the Miami Open final. In 1996, the German thus became the first player to win the Sunshine Double twice. She beat Conchita Martinez in the final of the California tournament and Chanda Rubin in Florida.In 1998, Marcelo Rios became the first non-American man to win the Sunshine Double.
The Chilean beat Greg Rusedski in the final at Indian Wells before dominating legend Agassi in the Miami Open final – making him the only player in history to have won the Sunshine Double without ever having won a Grand Slam tournament.One of the greatest American players of all time joined three of his compatriots by completing the Sunshine Double.
After several years of coming close, Andre Agassi finally managed to win the Indian Wells Masters 1000 and the Miami Open in 2001, beating Lleyton Hewitt in the semi-finals and Pete Sampras in the final to claim his first Indian Wells title. He then beat Jan-Michael Gambill in the Miami Open final to complete the Sunshine Double.