Indian Wells (California): The Spanish tennis professional Carlos Alcaraz registered a dominating victory over World No. 4 Daniil Medvedev 7-6(5), 6-1 on Sunday to retain the BNP Paribas Open title. It is the 20-year-old's first title since he triumphed at Wimbledon last year. Iga Swiatek beat Maria Sakkari 6-4, 6-0 in a match that stretched for an hour to win the women’s title.
Alcaraz entered the competition, suffering from an ankle injury at the Rio Open in late February. Even the first practice session at Indian Wells lasted 30 minutes without any movement. His first practice with his fellow pros “was really tough for me,” he said in a Tennis Channel interview.
Alcaraz outplayed Jannik Sinner in a three-set semifinal after needing three sets to get out of his second-round match.
“After every match I was feeling better,” Alcaraz said. “I was getting more confident after every match. Winning a Master 1000 again, a really important tournament to win, gives you motivation to keep going.”
With this victory, the 20-year-old has become the first man to defend Indian Wells title after Serbian Novak Djokovic won three in a row from 2014-16.
“It’s definitely your court, you like it here,” Medvedev told Alcaraz during the victory ceremony. “Hopefully you can one day let me play a little bit better here.”
Medvedev took a 3-0 lead in the first set while Alcaraz had eight unforced errors over those games. The Spaniard won three games on a trot to tie it, 3-3. The players served the rest of the set, with Alcaraz serving a love game to get into the tiebreaker. He led 3-0 and 5-2 before Medvedev tied it 5-5. Alcaraz won the next two points to close it out.
Alcaraz got the only two breaks in the second set, when Medvedev had one winner and nine errors. For the match, Alcaraz hit 25 winners and had 26 unforced errors, while Medvedev had 11 winners and 23 unforced errors.
Polish tennis professional Swiatek improved to 20-2 this year, with her wins leading the WTA Tour. With Swiatek losing just 21 games in six matches during the 12-day tournament — an average of 3.5 games per match. She has also added another feather to her cap, becoming the player with fewest (21) lost games by a male or female to win Indian Wells since 1999.
It was a repeat of the 2022 final, in which Swiatek beat Maria Sakkari, who hasn't been able to beat a Polish star since 2021, by 6-4, 6-1.
Swiatek raced to a 3-0 lead in the opening set. Sakkari recovered to win three straight games, including a break of Swiatek. She served a love game to tie it, 4-4.
Swiatek lost just two points on her serve the rest of the set, wrapping it up with a forehand winner in the corner. Swiatek was more dominant in the second set, breaking Sakkari three times all in love games. She lost just five points in the set.
Swiatek hit 15 winners and had 11 unforced errors in the 1 hour, 8-minute match. Sakkari had eight winners and 18 unforced errors.
Alcaraz and Swiatek earned $1.1 million (₹9.11 Crore) each for their wins. That's less than the $1.26 (₹10.4 Crore) million the women's and men's champions received in 2023. This year more prize money was allocated to the earlier rounds, reducing the champions' prize money by nearly 13%. (With AP inputs)
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