Why is the Sunshine Double so difficult to achieve?<\/strong><\/p>\n Navratilova: <\/strong>I think it\u2019s just because it\u2019s tough\u00a0player fields, the biggest and the best. And then there\u2019s the adjustment as far as weather and the courts. Indian Wells is a little bit faster than Miami, and the balls fly there. In Miami, it\u2019s more humid. It just weighs you down. With back-to-back two-week events, it\u2019s tough to stay on top of it for so long, physically or emotionally. You stay in this state of anticipation, with those competitive juices — the neurons are firing. Even with a day off, playing golf or whatever you want to do, you\u2019re still in the tournament, so you can\u2019t just put your feet up like you do when the tournament\u2019s over. It\u2019s a longer stretch of engagement.<\/p>\n Based on the first two months of the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz season, what\u2019s your lead headline?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Navratilova:<\/strong>\u00a0The biggest one is that [Elena] Rybakina is back. Winning the Australian Open, she played the best tennis when it mattered most. She was holding her nerves better than [Aryna] Sabalenka in the final and won in three. She was ill after Australia, which happens a lot. It\u2019s normal to get sick after a major. More often than not, I got sick after Wimbledon and the US Open because the body just goes. After skipping Abu Dhabi, I\u2019m hoping her immune system is OK. She won three matches in Doha and Abu Dhabi, so let\u2019s see how she\u2019s feeling in the desert.<\/p>\n Separating the front-runners<\/strong><\/p>\n The World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka hasn\u2019t played since the Australian Open, but she\u2019s 11-1 in 2026. How do you see her Sunshine Swing going?<\/strong><\/p>\n Navratilova:<\/strong>\u00a0She played so well getting to the AO final, winning tough matches. Kept it together, but she was not nearly near her best. The good news is that she\u2019s getting to Grand Slam finals — five of the past six. The bad news is that she\u2019s lost three of them.<\/p>\n Why do you think that is?<\/strong><\/p>\n Navratilova:<\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s a tough one to get over because you can deal with it — until you get there again. When you get into that situation, the body kind of does its own thing. And you don\u2019t know what to do. You feel like you\u2019re outside of your body looking down. It\u2019s so easy to develop scar tissue, considering it\u2019s the biggest stage. The whole world is watching, which magnifies it so much more. I\u2019m sure she can deal with it. For me, looking back, the way she fixed her serve and fixed herself speaks volumes. So I\u2019m thinking she\u2019s going to figure it out and learn how to manage it better.\u00a0<\/p>\n By the elite standards Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff have established, this stretch has been a bit quieter than usual. How do you see them navigating this challenge?<\/p>\n Navratilova: <\/strong>I think for both Iga and Coco, the matches that they used to win easily, they\u2019re now winning sometimes with difficulty \u2026 or losing. It doesn\u2019t take much to have that happen. What\u2019s the final score line, maybe 6-4, 6-4, but it\u2019s only 100 points to 94. I think the other players are beginning to figure out how to beat them because they have the tools now to get the tactics right. They have clarity of action. I also think they learn to practice against that kind of stuff. They\u2019re used to it, so they don\u2019t get on the court and say, `My God, I haven\u2019t seen that much topspin ever before.\u2019 They can create topspin with their hitting partners. They can plug those holes where they\u2019re uncomfortable with a particular shot, the forehand or the backhand and build that confidence.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ryan Lim\/AFP via Getty Images\n <\/p>\n As Coco Gauff fine-tunes her serve, how much of the recent double-fault spike is simply part of that adjustment process?<\/strong><\/p>\n Navratilova: <\/strong>Technically Sabalenka was all over the map with her technique when she was double faulting. Now she\u2019s got that solved. With Coco, as far as I can see, the technique is fine. Sometimes it can become mental when the technique is OK. It gets into your head because you\u2019re supposed to be in control. As soon as you think, `I don\u2019t want to double fault\u2019 — you double fault. It\u2019s a self-fulfilling prophecy. When you\u2019re confident, that thought doesn\u2019t come into your head. She\u2019s only 21 \u2026 I think she\u2019ll get it straightened out.<\/p>\n Amanda Anisimova made the last two Grand Slam finals in 2025. What do you see for her in the coming weeks?<\/strong><\/p>\n Navratilova: <\/strong>She\u2019s such a perfectionist. I mean, her strokes are so good. For her, if she doesn\u2019t hit the postage stamp on the other side of the court — even though it\u2019s a winner — she\u2019s like, `Oh, it should have been one foot to the right.\u2019 \u00a0She just needs to let go a little bit because she sets such a high bar with her strokes. That and I think she needs to improve her mobility — not much — but just a little. These days, the way everybody hits the ball, you must be quicker.<\/p>\n The teenage wave<\/strong><\/p>\n This year, already, some young players have really distinguished themselves. Curious about your thoughts on 19-year-old Victoria Mboko from Canada, a finalist in Doha.<\/strong><\/p>\n Navratilova: <\/strong>Her rise has been very meteoric, just crazy. She\u2019s a great athlete and she\u00a0doesn\u2019t have many weaknesses. Solid on both wings, moves well. Her biggest thing was being injured. She was strapped up like crazy at the Australian Open, in Doha, I thought she was going to default — and she kept winning … She\u2019s a competitor. I think she embraces the challenge. And technically solid, there\u2019s nothing to break down in her game. Good shot selection. She\u2019s got choices. Her tennis IQ is working well — and she\u2019s just getting started.<\/p>\n What should we make of Iva Jovic, the 18-year-old American who arrives 13-4 this season after a quarterfinal run in Melbourne?<\/strong><\/p>\n Navratilova: <\/strong>Yeah, she\u2019s had some great results already this year. Very solid, really good head on her shoulders. She seems very put together, an Emma Navarro type player. Doesn\u2019t panic. And also embraces the competition — I love that.<\/p>\n Alex Eala, the 20-year-old from the Philippines, who just reached the quarterfinals in Dubai \u2026\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Navratilova:<\/strong>\u00a0She\u2019s crafty. [Laughing] She\u2019s a good lefty. She uses her variety nicely. I think where she can improve the most is her serve, or make it pay off more. She needs a bigger serve and bigger kick. She\u2019s got the slice down pat. Just believe and hold her ground. She is slight of build so it\u2019s harder for her to absorb all that pace. But I think she can beef up a little and punch up that serve.<\/p>\n Final thoughts<\/strong><\/p>\n So, who wins at Indian Wells?<\/strong><\/p>\n Navratilova: <\/strong>You still have to go with Sabalenka because she\u2019s got the weapons. Right now, the way everything is going, if Rybakina is fully healthy, they are the top two players, clear frontrunners. They might come close to the level of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz if they keep going this way unless Coco figures things out and Swiatek gets her mojo back. I think she\u2019ll be out for revenge. Knowing her, Sabalenka is hoping she\u2019s going to play Rybakina at some point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Of all her legendary accomplishments, the Sunshine Double is not one of them. But that\u2019s only because Martina…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[79,1068,661,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-797903","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-text","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116156601031456277","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Coco](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Gauff-SF-RL-2.jpg\")
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