Carlos Alcaraz took down his first trophy since Wimbledon last year, successfully defending his Indian Wells title against Daniil Medvedev on Sunday. The match was a repeat of last year’s final, which ended with a similar result as Alcaraz came out on top 7-6(5) 6-1.
Alcaraz was able to come back from a 3-0 deficit in the opening set to win the 13th ATP Tour title of his career. He is now the first person since Novak Djokovic in 2016 to win back-to-back Indian Wells titles. He also joins his countryman Rafael Nadal as the second male player to win five Masters 1,000 tournaments before the age of 21.
The tournament wasn’t the easiest for Alcaraz as he had to go through a number of tough opponents to get to the Final. His quarterfinal against Alexander Zverev was affected by a swarm of bees which resulted in the Spaniard walking off the court.
He then had an extremely tough matchup against Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner in the semifinals. Sinner went up a set and Alcaraz was forced to push himself to comeback and pull off a gutsy win.
As mentioned before, in the final the 20-year old faced more adversity when Medvedev broke him in his first service game. Alcaraz didn’t waste much time to break back however before beating the Russian in a tie-break which at one point was tied at 5-5.
The second set of the final was much more comfortable for Alcaraz as he broke Medvedev twice; first at 1-0 and then 4-1. The victory came in an hour and forty two minutes.
The stats were heavily skewed in Alcaraz’s favor, he hit 23 winners compared to the 11 of Medvedev and won 73% of his service points to his opponent’s 56%.
Alcaraz will be a front-runner going into most upcoming tournaments with Sinner and Djokovic up there with him as the players to beat. With only one grand slam under his belt he will be looking towards Wimbledon next for a chance to defend his title. Before that the French Open would pose a chance to acquire a new title for his awards mantle.
Swaitek Wins Second Indian Wells Title Beating Maria Sakkari
In the Women’s Singles final, World No. 1 Iga Swaitek was able to breeze past Maria Sakkari in straight sets to earn the second Indian Wells title. She beat the ninth seed by the score of 6-4 6-0 in Sunday’s final.
The Polish superstar was able to complete the tournament without dropping a single set and lost a total of just 21 games. This was her second WTA 1000 title of the year after winning the Qatar Open in February.
Swaitek came into Indian Wells after a shock defeat to Linda Noskova in the Australian Open third round. Despite the loss she has now won her last six WTA finals to extend her career record to 19-4.
The final was a rematch of 2022, where Swaitek was able to grab victory rather easily again 6-4 6-1. Sakkari, ranked ninth in the world, battled hard in the first set, erasing a break point and saving two breakpoints in the final game. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough as the Polish phenom took the set 6-4 in 44 minutes.
The second set was all Swaitek as she didn’t let her opponent win a single game. She broke Sakkari at love for a 2-0 lead and never looked back. It would take just 24 more minutes for the Polish star to win the second set.
Swiatek became the 10th woman to win the Indian Wells title twice. She joins Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters as the only players to win two titles before turning the age of 23.
Next up for Świątek is the Miami Open where she will look to take down then the ‘Sunshine Double,’ winning both Indian Wells and the Florida tournament. She has already done this once in her career.
Based on Swaitek’s form at the moment she will be a huge favourite going into Grand Slams this year and will likely have a 2024 to remember.
