1000 Miami Open
Miami Open preview: Can Sabalenka and Rybakina extend their dominance?
Sabalenka and Rybakina lead a powerful top end; Miami’s quicker courts will sharpen the questions…
The second half of the Sunshine Double shifts into Miami, where the court plays quicker, the humidity rises and the draw narrows toward the Grand Slam stretch. At the top of the WTA, two players have repeatedly decided the biggest finals. Sabalenka and Rybakina are now No. 1 and 2 and have met in three straight top-tier finals: the WTA Finals, the Australian Open and Indian Wells. The last two meetings were high-quality three-setters with each taking one.
Seedings placed Iga Swiatek as the second seed, which means Sabalenka and Rybakina could meet in a semifinal rather than the final. Sabalenka enters as the defending Miami champion. Rybakina is a two-time runner-up here and in 2023 “fell match one short of the Sunshine Double.” Their projected routes to the semis look comparable. Sabalenka could run into Madison Keys or Zheng Qinwen early; Jasmine Paolini is the second-highest seed in her section, while Elina Svitolina is noted as the most in-form player in that quarter. Neither Paolini nor Svitolina would appear until the quarterfinals.
Rybakina may meet Marta Kostyuk in round three, could face Naomi Osaka in round four for a first-ever meeting, and might draw Jessica Pegula in the quarters, a player she beat in the Indian Wells quarterfinals.
Swiatek arrives with mixed form after a late surge last year from clay struggles to strong results at Wimbledon and Cincinnati. She is a former Miami champion (2022) but faces a tricky quarter that includes Alex Eala, Karolina Muchova, Victoria Mboko and Mirra Andreeva.
Coco Gauff remains a question mark after retiring in Indian Wells with nerve pain she described as “a firework was going off .” Miami is her hometown 1000 but she has never reached the fifth round here. Her section could include Maria Sakkari, Linda Noskova and Amanda Anisimova.
Anisimova, the sixth seed, also grew up in Florida and has not moved past round four in Miami. She finished 2025 with a US Open final and a Beijing title but has made one semifinal in five events this year and could face Ajla Tomljanovic early. Jessica Pegula is one of the top U.S. hopes; she has produced a final, two semifinals and a quarterfinal in Miami over the last four years but is 0-3 against Rybakina since October.
1000 ATP BNP Paribas Open
Sinner Tops $60 Million After Indian Wells; Zverev, Medvedev and Fritz Reach Milestones
Sinner passed $60,039,831 after Indian Wells; Zverev, Medvedev and Fritz also moved past key marks..
Jannik Sinner closed out a breakthrough fortnight at Indian Wells by not only claiming his first Masters 1000 title on hard court but also completing a career set of Masters 1000 hard-court trophies. He is the youngest man ever to achieve that particular collection of titles.
There was additional reward beyond the trophy. The 24-year-old Italian entered Indian Wells with $57,544,926 in career prize money. With the $1,151,380 winner’s cheque and ATP profit sharing funds that were applied to a number of players during the tournament, Sinner’s reported career total now stands at $60,039,831. He’s one of just eight tennis players ever to hit that number.
Sinner is the second player born in the 2000s to clear the $60 million mark, following Carlos Alcaraz, who is listed at $64,274,163.
Other players also moved past major career-money thresholds after Indian Wells and the profit sharing adjustments. Alexander Zverev rose from $59,390,927 to $60,969,344; his semifinal run at Indian Wells contributed $340,190 to that increase. Daniil Medvedev cracked the $50 million barrier, moving from $49,938,657 to $51,150,419 after earning $612,340 as the tournament finalist.
Taylor Fritz also reached a new milestone, advancing from $29,839,634 to $30,319,179. That total places him among an exclusive group of just six American tennis players ever to cross the $30 million mark after the Williams sisters, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and Coco Gauff.
The financial updates underscore how significant results at a single high-level event and the distribution of ATP profit sharing can be to a player’s career totals. For Sinner, the Indian Wells title provided both a landmark victory and a new monetary milestone.
1000 ATP BNP Paribas Open
Sinner arrived early, adapted his mindset and claimed the Indian Wells crown
Sinner arrived early at Indian Wells, won the BNP Paribas Open and talked mindset, tactics in depth
Jannik Sinner arrived in Indian Wells a week ahead of the draw, and the early preparation paid off when he defeated Daniil Medvedev 7-6(6), 7-6(4) to win the BNP Paribas Open. After the final he joined Episode 11 of The Big T podcast live to unpack the title run and the history he made.
Sinner’s victory made him the youngest man in the Open Era to win all six hard-court ATP Masters 1000 events. He also did not drop a set across six matches en route to the trophy, a streak he credited in part to a shift in approach.
On his surface preference and preparation, Sinner said, “I love to play tennis in general,” as Mark Petchey teased him about his penchant for clay courts. He explained the decision to remain on site after a less convincing week in Doha: “I felt like in Doha [where he lost to Jakub Mensik] I wasn’t playing my best tennis, but this can happen,” he said. “It’s normal to not always play at your top. I wanted to go back to Monaco, but the weather was very bad, so I said, ‘You know what? Let’s come here very early to prepare for this tournament.’
“It was one of the tournaments I never won, so I wanted to come here very early, trying to be focused on the process.”
Sinner described how a mental reset has helped him remain calm in key moments. “A couple of years ago … coming here, I was like, ‘I don’t feel well,’ but now, the mindset is different,” he said. “I try to move my game around however I feel and making less problems. Being more relaxed. At the end of this day, this is a mental sport, and I try to stay very calm. Also today, in the important moments. This helps me.
“Now, whatever comes, it’s only a positive. I’m extremely happy with how we are working, and I do believe that if we keep working hard and we keep pushing, the results will come eventually, and if not, we tried our best.”
Asked about tactics in the final, Sinner noted the aggressive plan against Medvedev and the pressure of the occasion: “I tried to go for shots even though in the beginning I was missing a little bit,” Sinner, who was 4-0 down in the second-set tiebreaker, said. “He was playing more aggressive than I was, so I tried to move him around a little bit on the forehand. … If you give him space, he’s very good with opening the court, so I tried to play tactically in the right way.
“At times, I managed to do well. At times, I could’ve gone for a little bit more towards the net, but there was also a little bit of tension. I knew what I was playing for today. It’s a huge achievement for me and from my side, and I’m very happy.”
He also described how off-court distractions helped him decompress before the event and joked about golf: “We don’t talk about handicap,” he joked. “I like to go around with a little bit of music … I don’t care about how I play, in golf at least!”
1000 ATP Miami Open
Tournament director confirms Joao Fonseca will play on Miami’s main Stadium
Fonseca will be staged on Miami’s main Stadium; a second-round meeting with Alcaraz could follow….
Joao Fonseca is guaranteed a spot on Miami’s largest court this week after a scheduling lesson from tournament director James Blake. Speaking to CoCo Vandeweghe and Steve Weissman, Blake laughed when asked about staging rising players like Brazil’s 19-year-old Fonseca and 20-year-old Alex Eala on the event’s biggest stage. “Harkening back to last year, when I learned my lesson: Fonseca needs to be on Stadium,” Blake responded, laughing. But he also made it clear: “He will be, yes.”
Fonseca played all his matches on Stadium during last year’s run to the third round, but a second-round match originally scheduled for Grandstand was moved at the last minute to the main court after a retirement opened a gap in the schedule. The change required a ticket upgrade and drew loud boos from Brazilian fans waiting on Grandstand; the announcement forced a pause in the ongoing match between Jack Draper and Jakub Mensik to restore order.
Blake said the pair of young internationals carry strong global followings and deserve center-court billing. “I think the international interest in both of them is so high,” tournament director Blake said of Fonseca and Eala. “And Miami being sort of a cultural melting pot with so much international flavor here… I think we’re going to need them to be on center court, because they have so many fans worldwide.
“These might feel like home matches, for both of them.”
Fonseca, who reached the fourth round in Indian Wells and is 4-4 on the season, said he enjoys playing in Miami. “I like the city, I like to play here, I like the humidity. It’s a little bit closer to how it is in Brazil, so yeah I like playing here,” Fonseca said. “Last year, it was more kind of a ‘test’ (for me). It was crowded, it was loud, a little bit of the Miami vibe. It’s so great for the tournament. And it’s also great for me, as well. I like playing with the crowd, so the support is just amazing.”
Fonseca faces Fabian Marozsan in the first round. If he advances, a second-round meeting with world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz awaits. Alcaraz is 16-1 to start the season after winning the Australian Open, lifting the trophy in Doha and reaching the semifinals at the BNP Paribas Open. The two met previously in an exhibition before 14,000 fans at LoanDepot Park last December.
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