Sloane Stephens and Jelena Ostapenko squared off for the 2018 Miami Open title.
In 2017, four different Grand Slam winners were crowned on the WTA Tour for the third time since the start of the decade. Two of them, though, might have been the most unlikely champions the women’s game had seen in quite some time.
At the French Open, the unseeded Latvian Jelena Ostapenko triumphed over Simona Halep for her first career title. In the last major of the year, the US Open, another unseeded player came out on top: American Sloane Stephens, rebounding from a significant injury, captured her first major over countrywoman Madison Keys in the final. Ostapenko and Stephens were named Most Improved Player and Comeback Player of the Year, respectively, for their accomplishments.
Both players started off their follow-up campaigns slowly, but caught fire at the second Premier Mandatory tournament of the year at the Miami Open. Seeded 13th, Stephens only dropped two sets on her way to the final, while Ostapenko, the sixth seed, was even more ruthless as she took every match in straight sets.
Facing each other for the first time, Stephens and Ostapenko were each vying for their second-biggest title to date. Going into this encounter, it would be a matchup putting Ostapenko’s power against Stephens’ athleticism and defense. Neither player got off to a flying start, however: They exchanged breaks four times, with Stephens being stopped twice as she served for the set.
When it went to a tiebreaker, the native Floridian—playing in front of her home crowd—raced to a 6-2 lead before Ostapenko rallied. At 6-5, though, a backhand error from Ostapenko gave Stephens the set. The Latvian won the first game of the second set, but that was it for her on the day. With her baseline game holding at a steady pace, Stephens raced through the second set. Up 5-1 and match point, she clinched the title when Ostapenko missed one more forehand for her first tournament victory since that US Open triumph.
2
Ostapenko dropped to 0-2 in finals in the United States, with her other loss coming in Charleston, S.C., in 2017.
9
With the victory, Stephens cracked the top 10 for the first time, hitting No. 9 in the standings.
2013
The last Miami Open final to feature two Grand Slam titlists from the prior year was 2013, when 2012 U.S. Open and Wimbledon champion Serena Williams beat the ’12 French Open champion, Maria Sharapova.
