Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday overcame a sluggish start and finished with a flourish to successfully defend his Indian Wells men’s singles crown with a 7-6 (7/5), 6-1 win over Daniil Medvedev.
The win ends a title drought for the world No. 2 that stretched back to last year’s Wimbledon and makes him the first man to defend a championship in the California desert since Novak Djokovic won three straight between 2014 and 2016.
Alcaraz showed no ill effects from the ankle injury that forced him to withdraw from last month’s Rio Open in Brazil, but said it was on his mind going into the event.
Photo: AFP
“Winning this tournament means a lot to me because the week before it began I had a lot of doubts about my ankle, but once I stepped on the court for the first round it started to feel better and as I said after every match, I was feeling better and better,” Alcaraz said. “Really, really happy to be able to win this tournament again.”
In a rematch of last year’s final, Alcaraz started slow, spraying errors around the court to fall 3-0 down, but raised his level to get back on serve and eventually force a tiebreak.
In the closely fought tiebreaker, Alcaraz pounded a forehand that his Russian opponent could not redirect safely in bounds to hand Alcaraz the first set.
Photo: AFP
The Spaniard romped through the second set, raising his arms in the air and letting out a roar when Medvedev missed another forehand wide on match point.
Second seed Alcaraz smacked 25 winners to Medvedev’s 11 and was especially effective against his opponent’s second serves.
“I enjoy playing these kind of matches with you,” Alcaraz told Medvedev during the trophy ceremony. “Hopefully, more finals ahead.”
Medvedev, who briefly lost his temper with some supporters in the Alcaraz-friendly crowd in the second set, was gracious in defeat.
“I’d like to congratulate Carlos,” Medvedev said. “It’s definitely your court, you like it here. Congrats to you and your team. You are doing a great job, so continue this way and hopefully one day you can let me play a little bit better here.”
Earlier, world No. 1 Iga Swiatek dominated ninth seed Maria Sakkari to win the women’s singles final 6-4, 6-0 and claim the title for a second time.
In a rematch of the 2022 showpiece, Swiatek’s precise serving and speedy defense proved too much for her Greek opponent and the Pole reeled off the final eight games to close out a tournament where she never dropped a set.
“I’m really proud of myself, I’m super happy,” Swiatek told reporters. “Even though this tournament looked like, the scores, maybe I had everything under control, it wasn’t from the beginning to the end so easy. So I’m happy I could improve during the tournament. I felt really good on the last two matches, big amount of confidence. I’m really proud of myself.”
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