Carlos Alcaraz defended his title from the first Masters 1000 tournament of the year in Indian Wells after beating Daniil Medvedev 7-6 (5), 6-1 in about an hour and 45 minutes of play.
The start of the match was for the Russian, who took an early 3-0 lead. However, the champion responded to the challenge and restored parity to eventually reach a tiebreak. In it, the 20-year-old Spaniard led 5-2 points before Medvedev leveled at 5-5, but Alcaraz had the last word and took the set 7-5 points. This seemed to discourage the representative of Russia, who allowed an early break at the start of the second set and had no answer for the strong game of his opponent. Alcaraz finished with 23 winners and 11 unforced errors, while Medvedev's balance was negative - 11 winners against 14 unforced errors.
Alcaraz thus defended his trophy from last year, when again Medvedev fell victim to the Spaniard in the final. Carlos is the first men's tennis player since Novak Djokovic in 2016 to defend his title in the California desert. Daniil did not manage to collect all the titles from the Masters 1000 tournaments on hard courts in his collection, after he had already triumphed in Miami, Canada, Cincinnati, Shanghai and Paris.
On the women's side, Iga Šwiatek left no doubt of her dominance throughout the tournament, dropping just four games to Maria Sakkari for a 6-4, 6-0 win in just over an hour.
The world No. 1 did not drop a set at the tournament, defeating Daniel Collins, Linda Noskova, Yulia Putintseva, Caroline Wozniacki and Marta Kostyuk in succession. In the final, Sakkari tested the Pole only in the opening set, when she managed to break back, but then conceded another one, giving Swiatek the lead. The leader in the world rankings was unchallenged in the second set, in which she did not give a game to Greece' best female tennis player.
For Swiatek, this is the second title in Indian Wells after the one in 2022. It is curious that the two faced each other in the final that year too, when again the Polish tennis player was better, winning with an identical score - 6-4, 6 -1. /BGNES
