If there were any thoughts that the tide might be turning atop the PIF WTA Rankings, Aryna Sabalenka had shut those down emphatically this month.

After missing all of February, all the World No. 1 has done in March is win Indian Wells for the first time, overcoming rival Elena Rybakina in a thrilling three-set final, and win five more matches in Miami this week — again taking down Rybakina, this time in commanding fashion.

Now the four-time Grand Slam champion is one win away from sweeping the Sunshine Double, becoming the first WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz player to do so since 2022.

To complete it, she’ll have to overcome not one, but two of her fiercest rivals.

Sabalenka will meet Coco Gauff in the Miami Open final at Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday (not before 3:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. GMT). In the first semifinal on Thursday, Gauff dominated Karolina Muchova 6-1, 6-1 to reach her first Miami final. 

Unlike Sabalenka, Gauff was anything but a sure thing heading into this tournament, which is essentially a homecoming for the Delray Beach native. After suffering a left arm injury in a match against Alexandra Eala in Indian Wells and retiring — just the second retirement of her career — the World No. 4 admitted to reporters early last week that she considered skipping this tournament. In fact, had the injury occurred at a different point in the calendar, she very likely would have taken the time to rest and recover.

But Miami is a bucket list tournament for her, she explained, and she desperately wanted to play here. Having never gotten past the fourth round in Miami, she was hopeful that she’d finally have a big result here.

Mission accomplished. But to cross it off the bucket list, she’ll have to upset the hottest player in the world.

We make the case for each player in this highly anticipated final.

The Case for Coco Gauff

It’s been a grind for Gauff this past week, with four straight three-set wins — two of which she won from a set down — in five exhausting days. But then came the semifinal against Muchova, who had dominated Eala earlier in the week and was coming off an extremely impressive win over Victoria Mboko. Despite how much time she’s spent on court, and how physically and emotionally taxing it was — especially considering her recent injury — Gauff looked as fresh, energetic and strong as she has all season. 

One of the speediest and most athletic players on tour, the American got to everything and dictated the points, targeting Muchova’s backhand and punishing her second service. The two-time Grand Slam champion broke Muchova six times — Muchova had only faced two break points combined in her previous two matches — won 12 of the last 13 games and won 80 percent of points on Muchova’s second serve.

Though it hasn’t been the ideal start to her season, she’s starting to feel like her game is coming together.

“I feel the improvements are happening, especially with my forehand,” Gauff told reporters. “I was happy with how it’s been this whole tournament. I said earlier that I’ve been practicing well and I’ve just been waiting for it to click. I think it’s not obviously fully clicked, but I think it is clicking.”

Gauff is of course no stranger to the big stage — and no stranger to playing Sabalenka on it. They’ve played 12 times since 2020 — the head-to-head is currently leveled at 6-6 — and Gauff famously came from a set down to beat Sabalenka in the 2023 US Open final. She also beat her in the 2024 WTA Finals semis, and came from a set down again in last year’s French Open final.

Gauff is 9-0 for her career in hard-court finals. To improve to 10-0 — and win one of the most meaningful titles of her career — she’ll need to pounce on Sabalenka’s second serve, move her from sideline to sideline and limit the double faults.

The Case for Aryna Sabalenka

It’s hard to overstate just how well Sabalenka is playing right now, and how incredibly difficult she is to beat.

Consider this: The last time she dropped a set to someone who doesn’t have the surname Rybakina was on Nov. 7, 2025, in a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win over Amanda Anisimova at the WTA Finals in Riyadh. What makes that almost incomprehensible statistic even more impressive is the fact that Sabalenka has now beaten Rybakina twice in a row.

Despite missing the Middle East swing, the 27-year-old leads the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz with 22 wins in 2026, to just one loss (95.7% winning percentage). She’s taken 46 of her 48 sets.

She’s hardly been tested in Miami this week, where she’s the defending champion. She needed just one tiebreaker to win all 10 of her sets. 

As strong as she looked in her first four matches, the win over Rybakina was most noteworthy. Sabalenka needed to save a match point in the Indian Wells final to snap her two-match losing skid against Rybakina, but on Thursday she handled the Australian Open champ with relative ease, and was clearly the better player.

She breezed in the majority of her service games and made Rybakina, arguably the best server on the WTA Tour, grind out her holds. Sabalenka won 83 percent of her first-serve points, ripped nine aces and converted four of her eight break-point opportunities, which is incredibly hard to do against Rybakina. 

Sabalenka has now won her last 21 sets in Miami, dating back to 2024.

With 12 matches against Gauff under her belt, she knows what to expect from her, and she’s excited for the opportunity to rekindle their rivalry in a city that means so much to both of them.

“A lot of rallies, a lot of emotions, a lot of aggression, a lot of fun,” Sabalenka said when asked about Saturday’s final. “It’s going to be a battle and I’m super excited to play her in another final.”

If Sabalenka serves as effectively as she has all week, she’ll put herself in position to win her third title of 2026 and 24th of her career.