It’s not easy to win the BNP Paribas Open and Miami Open back-to-back — better known as the Sunshine Double. Some might even consider it the toughest test in tennis.

Aryna Sabalenka is seeking to be the fifth woman all-time to accomplish it, and win Miami for the second consecutive year to boot. And her 7-6(5), 6-4 second-round win over American Ann Li on Friday night, she displayed all the qualities necessary to pull that off.

After the 1 hour, 42-minue win, Sabalenka confessed that while she wasn’t happy with her overall level of play, she was happy with her response to adversity. 

She led 4-1 early on, but Li pulled even by winning three straight games — which included a hold for 4-4 in which she saved seven break points. After twice holding serve to stay in the set, Li later led Sabalenka at the midway point of the tiebreak, but the top seed won four of the last five points to regain her lead. 

“I was there, I was fighting no matter what, even though my game probably wasn’t the best one that I have,” Sabalenka said in her on-court interview, where she also complimented the World No. 39.

“She played incredible tennis — she was super aggressive, serving incredible like wow,” she continued. “It was a great match, a great level, and I’m super happy to get this really difficult win.”

After three straight breaks to begin the second set, Sabalenka found her range to deny Li two opportunities for a fourth — and lost four points on serve the rest of the way to win her ninth straight opening match at a WTA 1000 event.

Sabalenka is bidding to be the first player since Ashleigh Barty in 2019 and 2021 to win back-to-back Miami Open crowns (there was no tournament in 2020) and the second woman this decade to do the Sunshine Double after Iga Swiatek in 2022.

She’ll face another American in Caty McNally next. After two first-round exits in Miami previously, McNally followed up an opening win over Rebeka Masarova with a 6-4, 1-6, 6-0 upset of No. 29 seed Wang Xinyu.