Iga Swiatek sweeps aside Osaka in Miami Open to clinch ‘Sunshine Double’

As little as a few fleeting weeks ago, while Ash Barty was still dominating all opponents in her path, the gap between the world number one and the rest of the top players seemed to be as vast as a canyon. Beneath her, so little separated the rest, and in her absence anyone could beat anyone else on any given day.

Yet in no time at all, the landscape of women’s tennis has shifted due to one player alone: Iga Swiatek has established herself as the transcendent figure in the sport. Two days before she officially becomes the new world number one, Swiatek took another enormous step forward in her young career with one of her biggest wins yet, dismantling four-times grand slam champion Naomi Osaka 6-4, 6-0 to win the Miami Open.

Having started the season still just working towards producing her best level on hard courts, 20 year-old Swiatek’s progress has accelerated at an astonishing rate. She has now established a 17-match winning streak, all on this surface, becoming just the fourth woman in history to clinch the Indian Wells and Miami ‘Sunshine Double’. She is also the first player to win the first three WTA 1000 events of the year.

This carried significance beyond the personal triumphs of Osaka and Swiatek. At Toronto in 2019, Osaka and an 18 year-old Swiatek faced off in a match so wildly entertaining and high quality that it sparked a friendship between them. It became clear that this was potentially an era-defining rivalry, and Miami marked their first meeting since, this time on equal terms as grand slam champions.

Not only has Swiatek dramatically improved since then and even when she won the French Open aged 19 in 2020, she is also utterly vicious in the biggest matches. In her five grand slam and WTA 1000 finals,