Sunshine Double Standouts: Djokovic three-peats

Pulling off the “Sunshine Double”—winning Indian Wells and Miami back-to-back—is one of the most impressive feats in tennis. Baseline is looking back at some of the rare accomplishments.

The 2007 edition of the Masters 1000 event in Indian Wells, Calif., surely holds a special place in Novak Djokovic’s heart: By virtue of reaching the final, the Serb cracked the top 10 for the first time. At his next tournament, the Miami Open, he would go on to claim the biggest title of his career to that point.

In 2011, as part of one of the greatest single-season performances in the history of the sport, Djokovic completed the “Sunshine Double” for the first time.

But as impressive as his record was between the two events over that time period, it reached unprecedented heights in the mid-2010s: From 2014 to 2016, Djokovic never lost—at either tournament.

When his run started, the world No. 2 was coming off defeats to Stan Wawrinka and Roger Federer, respectively, at the Australian Open and in Dubai. Hitting the California desert next, he would exact revenge against Federer in the final, winning in a third-set tiebreak.

After breaking his title drought, Miami was next. Only playing three of five possible matches on his way to the final due to two walkovers, a fresh Djokovic handled world No. 1 Rafael Nadal in straight sets.

A year later in Indian Wells, Federer and Djokovic would stage an encore performance with the same overall result in the final. When he made his return to Miami, Djokovic faced tests in each of his matches, but managed to prevail, beating the other member of the “Big 4,” Andy Murray for the championship.

None of his longtime rivals made it to the final round in the 2016 editions of the tournaments: Instead, Djokovic faced two of the leading players from the next generation for the titles. Canada’s Milos Raonic, who had never taken a set off the world No. 1 in their five previous matches, was steamrolled in the final, 6-2, 6-0. Djokovic’s dominant form carried over to Miami, where he topped Kei Nishikori of Japan in the championship bout.

Djokovic’s Miami Open win brought him into a tie with Andre Agassi for six titles at the tournament, the most among men. It also gave him his third consecutive Sunshine Double—a feat that’s not likely to be equaled anytime soon.