18-year-old Carlos Alcaraz has claimed his first Masters 1000 title after winning the Miami Open final. Alcaraz defeated Casper Rudd in a thrilling game of two sets to achieve this feat. The Spaniard was trailing 4-1 in the first set before bouncing back and claiming victory. In the second set, he broke his opponent twice before winning the set, ending the match 7-5, 6-4.

By winning the title, Alcaraz has become the first Spaniard to win the title. He is also the third-youngest person and the second-youngest Spaniard to win a Masters 1000 title. The Spaniard is 21 Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal. It was also Nadal who ended Alcaraz’ time at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells after beating him in the Semi-Finals. In February, he won his first ATP 500 title in Brazil.

In the women’s side, just a day before, the new world number one, Iga Swiatek, defeated Naomi Osaka to win the Miami Open women’s singles title. Swiatek needed just a little over an hour to beat Osaka 6-4 6-0 as she broke Osaka three times in the second round.

The win in Miami is coming just a few weeks after winning at Indian Wells, and she now becomes the fourth woman to win the Sunshine Double. She has also won 17 consecutive matches and is on course to dominate the year with her new status as world number one.

As for Naomi, this is her best performance in months. Her last title was the 2021 Australian Open Grand Slam, and this is the first time she would be playing at a final since then. Speaking after the match, she said she no longer feels disappointed as she used to before, and she has a better idea of what she wants to do: “I have learned that like, I don’t know, I’m not as disappointed as I normally would be like I think normally I would be crying in the locker room or something, but now I’m kind of like chill.

“I feel like I know what I want to do better, and I just want to go back and start training again to like hopefully win a tournament next time.”

Written by: Leon Osamor