Alcaraz reveals what he really wants to get out of the Miami Open

Carlos Alcaraz’s journey at the Miami Open will begin against one of Aleksandar Vukic or Roberto Carballes Baena.

The young Spanish champion, after 8 months of fasting, returned to win a title, defending and winning the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.

But now there is the second ATP Masters 1000 of the season that has started in Florida and there is a dream to complete: the Sunshine Doubles.

“For me it would be incredible. Not many tennis players have managed to complete the Sunshine Double. Very few players have achieved this and for me it would be something very big to be one of the tennis players capable of winning the ATP Masters 1000 in Indian Wells and Miami in the same year. So I’m going to give it a try and I’m really looking forward to getting started here in Miami. Obviously I will fight to reach the goal,” told Alcaraz to the ATP.

Carlos Alcaraz© Clive Brunskill / Staff Getty Images Sport

Carlitos will try to join the other champions who have achieved Sunshine Doubles

Only eleven players in the history of men’s and women’s tennis have been able to complete the famous Sunshine Double. Winning at Indian Wells and Miami in the same year is a feat reserved for a few elite athletes. The feat was achieved by Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Michael Chang, Marcelo Rios, Iga Swiatek, Steffi Graf, Kim Clijsters and Victoria Azarenka.

The king of the Sunshine Double is certainly Novak Djokovic, capable of triumphing at Indian Wells and Miami in the same season four times, including three consecutively between 2014 and 2016. In 2011, the first year in which he achieved the historic double, the Serbian defeated Rafael Nadal in both finals.

This year it will be Carlos Alcaraz who will have the great chance of joining the restricted club. The Spaniard tried already in 2023, when he won the title at the BNP Paribas Open and surrendered in the semifinal to Jannik Sinner at the Miami Open.

Swiatek, for his part, will try to complete the second Sunshine Double in his career after the one recorded in 2022.