Carlos Alcaraz won the Indian Wells Open in 2023, and in 2024, he successfully defended his title with another win over Daniil Medvedev.
Fans who missed the last year's final of the first ATP Masters 1000 event of the season didn't have to be too sad, because they got the same match in this year's final, as two players proved to be better than everyone else again.
Funnily enough, Medvedev doesn't like the courts in Indian Wells. Still, he made back-to-back finals at the tournament, showing how well he plays on any hard court, regardless of how much he likes it or not.
However, the final match against the young Spaniard showed why he doesn't like the courts, as it exposed all of his weaknesses against Alcaraz, who on the other hand, thrives on these courts.
In the semifinal, he stopped Jannik Sinner, who was unbeaten in 2024, and that showed how great he can play in California, and he backed it up with final performance against the Russian player.
But it wasn't without issues. Medvedev started the match much better, breaking the second seed in the second game, and after that, he even saved three break points, keeping his one-break advantage at 3-0.
Slowly but surely, Alcaraz started gaining ground under his feet, and it took only a couple more games before he broke back, and soon, the scoreboard showed 3-3.
The Spanish player then had a break point to go up 5-4, but after he didn't use his chance, the opening set had to be decided in a tie-break, in which the defending champion started with a mini-break.
He kept his one-break advantage until 5-4 in the tie-break, when he had two balls in his hand, but lost his mini-break, and Medvedev got a chance to get back into the set.
Yet, he wasn't able to do that, as Alcaraz converted his first set point, winning the tie-break of the opening set 7-5 to establish a one-set lead in the match.
With Alcaraz having a one-set advantage and Medvedev slowly losing ground under his feet, the destiny of the second set seemed to be decided even before it started, and sure it was.
The two-time Grand Slam champion broke in the second game of the second set, and he added another one in the sixth game, and with two-break advantage and barely any points lost on his serve, Alcaraz had no troubles serving out the match to win it 7-6(5), 6-1 and defend his Indian Wells trophy.
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