This paper explores the use of sparse arrays (SAs) to enable near-field communications, addressing the high hardware and energy costs associated with extremely large-scale arrays (XL-arrays). Two types of SAs are considered: linear sparse arrays (LSAs) and extended coprime arrays (ECA). The LSA is characterized for its near-field beam pattern, which shows that while it achieves beam-focusing gain, it introduces undesired grating-lobes with comparable beam power. An efficient hybrid beamforming design is proposed to mitigate inter-user interference (IUI). The ECA, composed of two LSA subarrays with different inter-antenna spacing, is then analyzed for its near-field beam pattern. It is shown that the ECA can significantly suppress the beam power of grating-lobes compared to the LSA, thanks to the offset effect of the two subarrays. A customized two-phase hybrid beamforming design is proposed for the ECA. Numerical results demonstrate the performance gains of the proposed SAs over conventional uniform linear arrays (ULA) in terms of rate performance.This paper explores the use of sparse arrays (SAs) to enable near-field communications, addressing the high hardware and energy costs associated with extremely large-scale arrays (XL-arrays). Two types of SAs are considered: linear sparse arrays (LSAs) and extended coprime arrays (ECA). The LSA is characterized for its near-field beam pattern, which shows that while it achieves beam-focusing gain, it introduces undesired grating-lobes with comparable beam power. An efficient hybrid beamforming design is proposed to mitigate inter-user interference (IUI). The ECA, composed of two LSA subarrays with different inter-antenna spacing, is then analyzed for its near-field beam pattern. It is shown that the ECA can significantly suppress the beam power of grating-lobes compared to the LSA, thanks to the offset effect of the two subarrays. A customized two-phase hybrid beamforming design is proposed for the ECA. Numerical results demonstrate the performance gains of the proposed SAs over conventional uniform linear arrays (ULA) in terms of rate performance.