{"id":208161,"date":"2026-03-27T10:53:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T10:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/208161\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T10:53:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T10:53:14","slug":"aryna-sabalenka-reveals-prediction-for-miami-open-final-against-coco-gauff-as-rivalry-resumes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/208161\/","title":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka reveals prediction for Miami Open final against Coco Gauff as rivalry resumes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> said she is preparing for \u201ca lot of emotions\u201d in her Miami Open<\/a> final against Coco Gauff<\/a> as the World No 1 stands on the brink of completing a historic \u201cSunshine Double\u201d in Florida.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka returned to the Miami Open final with a 6-4 6-3 victory over Elena Rybakina<\/a> on Thursday, her second consecutive win over the World No 2 after saving match point to beat her in the Indian Wells final<\/a> earlier this month.<\/p>\n

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Sabalenka will now face Gauff in a rematch of last season\u2019s Roland Garros final, where Sabalenka criticised her opponent\u2019s style of play <\/a>after the American won 6-7 6-2 6-3 to lift her second grand slam title.<\/p>\n

\"Coco<\/p>\n

Coco Gauff brushed aside Karolina Muchova to reach her first Miami Open final (IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect)<\/p>\n

Sabalenka and Gauff have only played once since then, with the Belarusian levelling their head-to-head at six wins each with a 7-6 6-2 win at the WTA Finals towards the end of last season.<\/p>\n

Gauff, who thrashed the in-form Karolina Muchova 6-1 6-1 to reach her first Miami Open final, has previously given Sabalenka difficulty through her ability to retrieve and get the extra ball in play.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of rallies, a lot of emotions, a lot of aggression, a lot of fun,\u201d Sabalenka said when asked what she will expect in the final. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a battle and I\u2019m super excited to play her in another final.\u201d<\/p>\n

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With her impressive 79-minute victory over Rybakina, Sabalenka reached her fourth consecutive final this year and improved her record this season to 22-1. After losing to Rybakina in last season\u2019s WTA Finals and the Australian Open<\/a>, she has now beaten the World No 2 in consecutive meetings.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

(IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect)<\/p>\n

\u201cI really enjoy our rivalry,\u201d said Sabalenka during her on-court interview. \u201cShe\u2019s an incredible player, always pushing me to the limit, and you know, with her, you always have to bring your best tennis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I did everything right, and she played great, but I think I pushed her so much and I\u2019m proud of this win. It\u2019s always tough physically, mentally, and I\u2019m happy to get another win against her.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sabalenka is bidding to become just the fifth woman to win Indian Wells and the Miami Open back-to-back, and the first since Iga Swiatek in 2022. Kim Clijsters, Victoria Azarenka and Steffi Graf, who won the \u2018Sunshine Double\u2019 twice in 1994 and 1996, are the only other players to have achieved the feat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka said she is preparing for \u201ca lot of emotions\u201d in her Miami Open final against Coco…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[93119,93162,93126,93166,123,125,124,89755],"class_list":["post-208161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-coco-gauff","tag-elena-rybakina","tag-karolina-muchova","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-miami-open"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}