The fourth WTA 1000 event of 2026 begins Tuesday, March 17 from the hard courts of Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, FL. World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina have been the top two performers on the WTA Tour to begin the year, so it's no surprise they have the shortest Miami Open title odds after recently facing off in the final of Indian Wells. Other top title contenders in a deep women's singles field include world No. 2 Iga Swiatek, as well as Americans Jessica Pegula, Amanda Anisimova and Coco Gauff. The top 32 seeds all have byes into the second round of the 96-player Miami Open draw.
Before we get to the favorites, contenders and sleepers at the Miami Open, let's acknowledge some notable injuries and absences. Emma Raducanu (illness), Emma Navarro (undisclosed), Lois Boisson (quadriceps), Marketa Vondrousova (shoulder), Barbora Krejcikova (thigh), Daria Kasatkina (hip), Karolina Pliskova (knee) and Veronika Kudermetova (undisclosed) will miss the tournament due to injuries, while 2024 Miami Open champion Danielle Collins and Ons Jabeur (maternity) also aren't among the Miami Open entrants.
After each player's name below, you will see their title odds from BetMGM.
Miami Open WTA Picks
The Favorite for the 2026 Miami Open
Aryna Sabalenka (+275) - Sabalenka continues to prove that she's the best hard-court player on the WTA Tour. The world No. 1 bolstered her impressive resume with her 10th WTA 1000 title (seventh on hard courts) at Indian Wells, where
The fourth WTA 1000 event of 2026 begins Tuesday, March 17 from the hard courts of Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, FL. World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina have been the top two performers on the WTA Tour to begin the year, so it's no surprise they have the shortest Miami Open title odds after recently facing off in the final of Indian Wells. Other top title contenders in a deep women's singles field include world No. 2 Iga Swiatek, as well as Americans Jessica Pegula, Amanda Anisimova and Coco Gauff. The top 32 seeds all have byes into the second round of the 96-player Miami Open draw.
Before we get to the favorites, contenders and sleepers at the Miami Open, let's acknowledge some notable injuries and absences. Emma Raducanu (illness), Emma Navarro (undisclosed), Lois Boisson (quadriceps), Marketa Vondrousova (shoulder), Barbora Krejcikova (thigh), Daria Kasatkina (hip), Karolina Pliskova (knee) and Veronika Kudermetova (undisclosed) will miss the tournament due to injuries, while 2024 Miami Open champion Danielle Collins and Ons Jabeur (maternity) also aren't among the Miami Open entrants.
After each player's name below, you will see their title odds from BetMGM.
Miami Open WTA Picks
The Favorite for the 2026 Miami Open
Aryna Sabalenka (+275) - Sabalenka continues to prove that she's the best hard-court player on the WTA Tour. The world No. 1 bolstered her impressive resume with her 10th WTA 1000 title (seventh on hard courts) at Indian Wells, where she avenged her Australian Open final loss to Elena Rybakina in the championship match. Sabalenka's up to 17-1 in 2026, and she's the defending champion at the Miami Open. She has been a virtual lock for the semifinals or better at the biggest tournaments over the past couple years, and there's little reason to think this one will be an exception. It looks like smooth sailing for Sabalenka into the Round of 16, where she could face Madison Keys or Qinwen Zheng. Jasmine Paolini or Elina Svitolina are her likeliest quarterfinal opponents, potentially followed by Rybakina in the semifinals and Iga Swiatek in the final.
In the Mix for the 2026 Miami Open
Elena Rybakina (+600) - Rybakina won her second career Grand Slam title at the Australian Open and pushed Sabalenka to the absolute limit in the final of Indian Wells, falling 8-6 in the deciding-set tiebreak. The big server notched a pair of straight-sets top-10 victories at Indian Wells prior to losing in the championship match. Rybakina's strong start to 2026 hasn't been enough to overtake Swiatek for the No. 2 seed, and the downside of being seeded third is the possibility of landing in the same half of the draw as Sabalenka, which is what happened to Rybakina here. Rybakina's chalk opponents from the third round through quarterfinals are Marta Kostyuk, Naomi Osaka and Jessica Pegula. Those are familiar faces for Rybakina, who just defeated both Kostyuk and Pegula at Indian Wells and also took out Pegula en route to the title at the Australian Open. Random dips in level or health have plagued Rybakina over the last few years, and fatigue could be an issue coming off a deep run at Indian Wells, but a fully fit Rybakina has been head and shoulders above every opponent but Sabalenka this year.
Iga Swiatek (+700) - Swiatek won this event in 2022 and has a 12-3 career record at the Miami Open, so she certainly can't be written off despite a 12-5 start to 2026 that is downright pedestrian by her lofty standards. Landing in the opposite half of the draw from Sabalenka and Rybakina should help here, though Swiatek has her fair share of tricky opponents in her section. In the third round, the Pole could face Alexandra Eala, who knocked Iga out of last year's Miami Open. Karolina Muchova in the Round of 16 and Mirra Andreeva or Victoria Mboko in the quarterfinals could also be challenging matchups, with Coco Gauff or Amanda Anisimova as potential semifinal opponents for Swiatek.
Jessica Pegula (+900) - Pegula's off to an excellent 16-3 start in 2026, including a WTA 1000 title in Dubai, where she capitalized on the absences of Sabalenka and Swiatek. Unfortunately for the fifth-seeded American, two of her three losses were straight-sets defeats at the hands of Rybakina, whom Pegula is on track to meet in the quarterfinals here. Pegula's strong form and easy early draw suggests she's likely to reach at least the quarterfinals for a fifth consecutive Miami Open, but she has a history of coming up short against the WTA Tour's top contenders and will likely be rooting for chaos to ensue around the rest of the draw to make her path through the final few rounds easier.
Amanda Anisimova (+1200), Victoria Mboko (+1200) and Coco Gauff (+1800) are all young North American players with lofty aspirations at the Miami Open. Anisimova has cooled off a bit to begin 2026, dropping to sixth in the rankings with a 9-5 start after climbing to third in January thanks to runner-up finishes at the last two Grand Slams of 2025. The 24-year-old New Jersey native has a nice opportunity to set up a possible all-American quarterfinal against Gauff, as the top obstacle on Anisimova's path figures to be No. 12 seed Belinda Bencic in the Round of 16. Mboko has broken into the top 10 with a 16-5 start to 2026. All five losses have come against top-20 competition, so the 19-year-old Canadian has established herself as an extremely tough out, and she's the favorite to reach the quarterfinals out of the section with slumping No. 8 seed Mirra Andreeva. Gauff is just 11-5 to begin 2026 and has struggled with her serve, but this is an excellent buy-low opportunity on the fourth-seeded American. It's easy to forget that Gauff is still only 22 considering she has been near the top of the WTA Tour for a few years already, and the Delray Beach, FL native will get plenty of support from the local crowd. The court conditions at the Miami Open are often compared to the U.S. Open, where Gauff won the first of her two Grand Slam titles.
Mirra Andreeva (+2000), Karolina Muchova (+2000) and Elina Svitolina (+2500) round out the list of top contenders for the Miami Open title. Andreeva has no shortage of talent, but attitude problems have been holding the 18-year-old Russian back to begin 2026. She could face Mboko in the Round of 16 and Swiatek in the quarterfinals. Muchova is 14-3 in 2026, including a WTA 1000 title in Doha, but she could face Swiatek again in the Round of 16 after taking a 6-2, 6-0 drubbing from Iga at Indian Wells. Svitolina's also off to a fabulous start in 2026 at 19-4. Three of those four losses have come against top-five opponents. The ninth-seeded Ukrainian's well positioned to beat out No. 7 seed Jasmine Paolini for a quarterfinal spot, but Svitolina could face Sabalenka, Rybakina and Swiatek consecutively from there.
Sleepers for the 2026 Miami Open
Linda Noskova (+5000) - Noskova's coming off a semifinal run at Indian Wells, and the No. 14 seed landed in a good spot to make another deep WTA 1000 run in the bottom half of the draw, which looks much more open on paper than the top half. The winner of a potential Round of 16 clash between Noskova and Gauff could well make the final. The 21-year-old Czech has notched plenty of impressive wins in her young career, including a victory over Swiatek at the 2024 Australian Open when Iga was ranked No. 1.
Alexandra Eala (+8000) - Eala made some Miami magic last year, bursting onto the scene with a Cinderella semifinal run that included top-five wins over Keys and Swiatek. The 20-year-old Filipina is a crowd favorite everywhere she goes and will be looking to put on an encore performance as the No. 31 seed in 2026. If they each win their first match after a bye, Eala would face Swiatek again in the third round.
Jelena Ostapenko (+10000) - Consistency isn't Ostapenko's strong suit, but the big-hitting Latvian has a high ceiling to her game. She's seeded 25th here but has been ranked as high as No. 5 in her career and still has plenty of good tennis left at age 28. Ostapenko reached a WTA 1000 semifinal in Doha and was up a set and a break against Pegula at Indian Wells before letting that match slip away. She has a nice opportunity to knock off the struggling Paolini in the third round, and a top-10 win could fuel a deep run here, even in the loaded top half of the draw.
Miami Open Prediction
Given how dominant Sabalenka and Rybakina have looked, it's likely one of them will end up in the final, even if the other were to falter before their potential semifinal showdown. The bottom half of the draw is much more wide open, and I'm picking Gauff to emerge from there, much to the delight of the South Floridian crowd. In a potential Gauff-Sabalenka final, the American would be in great position to take home the title given her mental edge from defeating Sabalenka in the finals of both the 2023 U.S. Open and 2025 French Open. For those reasons, my Miami Open title pick is Coco Gauff over Sabalenka.
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